Kyiv, Ukraine
CNN
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The scenes are chaotic: russian tank Spinning wildly before exploding or driving straight into landmines, men running in every direction, some on fire, bodies of soldiers trapped in tank tracks.
Russian military bloggers are calling it a failure and worse.
The visuals have been recorded by Ukrainian military drones over the past two weeks around the town of Vuhledar in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, where successive Russian offensives have failed.
The debacle at Wuhldar suggests chronic failures in the command and strategy of the Russians as they prepared for a spring offensive, If repeated elsewhere on the long military front in Donetsk and Luhansk, such failures could jeopardize the Kremlin’s plans to seize more territory.
Nearly 20 videos geolocated by CNN show basic tactical blunders in an area that is open and flat, where Ukrainian spotters on high ground can direct artillery strikes and where minefields are inflicting Russian casualties.
One video shows a tank running into a minefield and exploding, followed by an infantry fighting vehicle almost oblivious which suffers the same fate. Other shows show Ukrainian drones dropping small explosive charges on stationary tanks in open country – and a graveyard of abandoned armor.
At least two dozen Russian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles have been disabled or destroyed in just a few days, according to video released by the Ukrainian military and analyzed by CNN and military experts. Satellite images show intense patterns of impacts along tree lines where Russian tanks tried to advance.
The Russian Defense Ministry insisted the attack on Vuhladar, where the 155th Marine Brigade is prominently involved, is progressing as planned. In recorded remarks for a Sunday television show, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “the marines are acting as they should. Right now. Fighting heroically.”
But the leader of the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, admitted on Friday that the area was “hot” and said “the enemy continues to transfer large amounts of reserves, and this has slowed the liberation”. of this settlement.
Vuhledar was built for a nearby coal mine (the name translates as “gift of coal”) and stands above the surrounding plains. Its high-rise buildings give its defenders – mainly the Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized – a significant advantage, as well as hardened underground cover.
Military historian Tom Cooper, who has studied the battle for Wuhldar, describes it as “a big, tall fort in the middle of an empty, flat desert”.
The city has become a lynchpin in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Russian army has been trying to take it for three months. A Moscow victory here would make it difficult for Ukrainians to shut down a nearby railroad that links Donetsk to Russian-held Crimea and allow the Russians to launch a northern “hook” as part of their anticipated spring offensive. Is.
a first malicious plan in november It took heavy casualties and a near mutiny among the men of the 155th Marine Brigade to take Wuhldar.
Critics of Russia’s military high command say the handling of the latest offensive is worse still, with one military blogger describing it as a “shameful debacle”.
Cooper states that the Russians built up a formidable force around Wuhldar, “say, a total of about 20,000 troops, 90 MBTs. [main battle tanks]maybe twice as many IFVs [infantry fighting vehicles]and about 100 cannons.
But the attacks in the last week of January were fatally flawed, he said. Cooper wrote on his blog, “They were moving along a relatively narrow route, all the while Ukrainian observers stationed atop high-rise buildings in Vuhladar, and now facing an empty area about 500 meters to the eastern side of the city.” Were.”
“Ukrainian artillery not only inflicted heavy losses on the advancing units but also hit their rear – cutting off both their supply links and their potential evacuation routes.”
Several prominent Russian military bloggers have been unrelenting in their criticism of the Vuhledar offensive.
“He was shot like a turkey at a shooting range,” said Igor Strelkov, a former DPR defense minister who has become a staunch critic of the campaign.
Strelkov, also known as Igor Girkin, said on a telegram that “a lot of good T-72B3/T-80BVM tanks and the best paratroopers and marines were destroyed.”
In another post on Telegram, Strelkov wrote: “Only fools attack one place head-on, heavily fortified and extremely inconvenient for attackers for several months in a row.”
Russian army blogger Their Telegram channels have tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of subscribers. He has been highly critical of previous episodes in the campaign.
One of them – Moscow Calling – said at the weekend that the movement of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in “thin columns” near Vuhladar was asking for trouble. He alleged that Russian units in the region lacked information because commanders had failed to integrate intelligence-gathering into battlefield decisions.
On the contrary, he said: “All of this has been implemented or is in the process of being implemented by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
Moscow Calling insisted that the older T-72 tanks stationed at Vuhladar lacked upgrades that would improve the width of the driver’s field of view. This may help to explain the many instances in which Russian tanks got tangled or blindly reversed.
“How are blind, deaf tanks, armored personnel carriers supposed to fight in columns without equally blind, deaf infantry? And how to coordinate any action if there is no communication and situational awareness?” he wrote.
“If the Russian Armed Forces try to disperse, they will shoot each other, because they do not understand who is in front of them.”
Many Russian commentators have called for the dismissal of Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov, commander of the Eastern Grouping of Forces. Muradov was in charge in November when the men of the 155th protested that their tactics had caused devastating losses.
Another blogger said that the Russian army was doomed to repeat its mistakes if such commanders remained.
in one profanity postThe pro-Wagner telegram channel Gray Zone said of Muradov: “This coward is lying at the control point and sending column after column until the commander of one of the brigades involved in the Wuhledar attack dies on the contact line Is.”
According to unofficial Russian sources, the commander killed was a special forces colonel, Sergei Polyakov.
Another Russian blog with over 500,000 followers Said About Muradov’s team: “These guys killed a huge number of personnel and equipment [in November] And didn’t take any responsibility. After which they started attacking Ugledar with the same generosity. [Vuhledar], Impotence always breeds leniency.
But the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says poor leadership is only part of the problem: “The highly dysfunctional tactics are far more indicative of the fact that the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade is likely to contain poorly trained recruits.” ” Personnel than bad command.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the increase in Russian casualties in places like Vuhledar “is likely due to a number of factors, including a lack of trained personnel, co-ordination and resources at the front”.
Ukrainian military officials say there is a random mix of Russian forces in the Vuhladar area, including professional units, recently mobilized, the DPR’s militia and infantry from a private military company called Patriot, said to be close to the Russian Defense Ministry. goes. ,
The setbacks around Vuhledar do not bode well for a wider Russian offensive. ISW assesses that they “potentially undermined the confidence of the Russian ultranationalist community that the Russian military is capable of launching a decisive offensive operation.”
However, some Ukrainian units are running short of ammunition as the pace of Russian operations increases.
“The key to success on the battlefield is effective fire damage, which requires an appropriate amount of weapons and ammunition,” Valery Zaluzny, commander of the Ukrainian army, said on Saturday.
Analysts say the challenge for the Ukrainians is to re-supply frontline units with shells and anti-tank missiles fast enough.
The Russian army has a distinct advantage in firepower. On Saturday they launched a barrage of thermobaric missiles at Vuhledar, a reminder that they are more capable of wreaking havoc than taking territory.