Losses mount: Russian 155th Marine Brigade decimated at Vuhledar
The losses of the Russian elite 155th Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet, which took part in the battle for Vuhledar, amount to 2,400 people, reports the BBC. This constitutes 80 per cent of the entire unit. Before the war, the brigade comprised about 3,000 soldiers.
Since the first day of the invasion, the 155th Marine Brigade has been involved in the war in Ukraine. This formation fought in the Kyiv region. It then withdrew to Belarus, after which it was transferred to Donbas. Its main target was the fortress of Vuhledar.
The elite brigade ceased to exist
Just a few months later, in November 2022, pro-Russian military bloggers reported heavy losses of the brigade during an offensive near the village of Pavlivka (about 2 miles from Vuhledar).
The infantry even lodged a complaint to the governor of Primorsky Krai about the "large and useless" losses in personnel and equipment. In just four days, the Russians lost 300 people.
They were transferred to Kursk
The Russian Ministry of Defence, as always, downplayed the complaint. In response to the soldiers’ allegations, they stated that losses over 10 days did not exceed 1 per cent killed and 7 per cent wounded.
Currently, the 155th Brigade operates in the Kursk region, where it was moved in August 2024, after the start of the Ukrainian offensive in the Russian region.
In August, fighters from this brigade published a recording showing the severed head of a Ukrainian soldier impaled on a post in the Belgorod region.
Vuhledar, which the brigade had been attacking since 2022, only came under full Russian control at the beginning of October.
The BBC comments that the story of the 155th Brigade clearly illustrates the exhaustion of Russian formations fighting on the most difficult sections of the front.
On Friday, "The New York Times" reported that since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army has lost more than 600,000 soldiers (killed and wounded), and September became the bloodiest month in history. At the same time, Kyiv's losses are said to be half as much.
