Russia may have lost an entire elite brigade near a Donetsk coal-mining town – POLITICO

KYIV — As Russia probes Ukraine’s defensive lines ahead of an expected offensive, it might have lost the entire elite 155th naval infantry brigade while storming Vuhledar, a coal-mining town in the Donetsk region.    “A large number of enemy forces, including the command staff, were destroyed near Vuhledar and Mariinka in Donetsk Oblast,” Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, head of the united press center of the Tavriskiy District of Ukrainian defense forces, told POLITICO. “In addition, over the past week, the enemy lost about 130 units of equipment, including 36 units of tanks.” Russian forces also were losing 150-300 marines a day near Vuhledar, Dmytrashkivskyi said.   Russian tactical failures around Vuhledar have likely further weakened the Russian ultranationalist community’s belief that Moscow’s forces are able to launch a decisive offensive operation, the Institute for the Study of War reported in its latest update. Pro-Kremlin military bloggers have been mourning huge losses and criticizing the Russian command for sending the elite troops in frontal attacks. The Ukrainian marines also published a video of Russian troops panicking and piling up on a battlefield near Vuhledar. “Go make a cemetery! Gosh, the first column went there and blew up, and then the second one went exactly the
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