By David Sole
The Ukrainian proxy war for the US and NATO against Russia suffered a major defeat in southern Donetsk with the loss of its “fortress city” of Vuhledar on October 2. Western media are predictably trying to spin the story as not very significant in the overall war. But the loss is a very significant development and Ukraine suffered terrible losses.
Russian forces had tried over the past two years to take Vuhledar with frontal assaults that failed. Recent Russian tactics, used increasingly and successfully across the line of contact, involve pincer movements that cut off supplies to the Ukrainian defenders in towns. The Ukrainian high command has repeatedly ignored the danger to their troops, refusing to order their withdrawal while it was still possible. This has led to severe losses in killed and wounded. This happened again in Vuhledar.
One of the main units inside Vuhledar was the 72nd brigade, made up of battle-hardened troops. On October 2 the BBC reported on interviews with two soldiers who managed to escape Vuhledar in the final days of the battle. The Ukrainian generals never gave the order to pull out. “If a withdrawal is not organized, it ends up being chaotic,” one soldier reported. “Ukrainian units started retreating without waiting for the order.” “Soldiers had to find their own way out of Vuhledar by foot as it was impossible to evacuate them otherwise.” “Many were wounded and killed by Russian drones and artillery as they tried to leave…Many more are still missing.” “Those who managed to get out are exhausted and depressed. They are also angry at their commanders for not ordering the retreat earlier….it was obvious for some time that Ukrainian forces wouldn’t be able to hold the city for long.”
At the height of the battle the Ukrainian high command ordered the removal of the commander of the 72nd brigade, Colonel Ivan Vinnik. This occurred on September 29. Vinnik had served in Vuhledar since August 2022. The official reason was unconvincingly given as “for purposes of promotion.”
It is no wonder, then, that Ukraine is having problems filling its depleted military ranks through conscription. The Times of London reported on October 3 that “Conscription tactics get dirty as war-weary Ukrainians defy draft.”
Ukraine has set a goal of 200,000 new recruits but is having a tough time. One draft officer stated “we’re not mobilizing even 20 percent of what is required.” He told the Times that “on some days more than 100 call-up papers were handed out, yet only a handful of men would respond.”
This officer “said colleagues were accepting bribes … to forge exemptions” describing his department one of “corruption, mismanagement and disillusionment.” The recruiters are “increasingly deceitful, coercive and violent” trying “to mobilize a new generation of soldiers in the face of mounting war-weariness.”
As Russian troops systematically took control of Vuhledar, videos posted online often showed them holding up flags on top of high-rise buildings they had captured. One of the flags was, of course, the Russian flag. Interestingly another flag often seen alongside their national banner was a red flag with a hammer and sickle emblem – the Soviet Victory Banner. Wikipedia describes this as “the banner raised by the Red Army soldiers on the Reichstag building in Berlin on May 1, 1945, the day after Adolf Hitler committed suicide. It was raised by three Soviet soldiers,” one Ukrainian, one Russian and one Georgian.
Apparently at one time since the end of the Soviet Union, officials tried to remove the hammer and sickle symbol from the flag. This decision had to be reversed, and the classic communist logo restored, after tremendous uproar from veterans of what is known as The Great Patriotic War (World War II).
Just as this Russian victory in Vuhledar was taking place, the new head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – Secretary General Mark Rutte – “backed the idea of allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied [long-range] weapons to strike deep into Russian territory.” Russian President Putin, however, noting that long-range missiles would require US and NATO specialists to obtain satellite data and program such advanced weapons, has warned the West that doing so would put them in a “state of war” with Russia and risk dangerous escalation.
Be the first to comment