A Ukrainian Brigade Has Held Vuhledar 2 Years; It Might Get Cut Off

In January and February 2023, the 11th and 12th months of Russia’s wider on Ukraine, the Ukrainian army’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade defeated a Russian force twice its size outside Vuhledar, a fortress town in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

The 72nd Mechanized Brigade has defended Vuhledar ever since, protecting a key sector of the 700-mile front line—the spot where the west-to-east southern front line turns north and threads through eastern Ukraine all the way to Russia’s Kursk Oblast, where Ukrainian troops have carved out a 400-square-mile salient.

But after 20 months in Vuhledar, the 2,000-person 72nd Mechanized is surely tired—and the Russians keep coming. Having tried and failed for nearly two years to force the Ukrainian brigade out of Vuhledar, the Russian 40th Marine Brigade and other brigades and regiments are now trying to bypass it and cut it off. And they’re slowly succeeding.

While the fighting slows in many other sectors, it might accelerate around Vuhledar as the Russians exploit an opportunity they’ve fought for since early 2023. Frontelligence Insight, a Ukrainian analysis group, recommended “keeping an eye on Vuhledar, as the situation there could get very dynamic.”

The mine-strewn roads and fields around Vuhledar have become a death trap for attacking Russians. It’s common for the Russians to attack in dozens of armored vehicles plus motor bikes and golf carts. It’s equally common for the Ukrainians to destroy most of the attackers with mines, drones, artillery and anti-tank missiles.

But the roads through Vodiane, a few miles to the north, are less dangerous. And it’s here the Russians are advancing under the cover of warplanes lobbing powerful glide bombs. The Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies logged six Russian attacks in the area on Sunday.

The 72nd Mechanized Brigade is reasonably well-equipped with T-64 tanks, BMP-2 fighting vehicles and M-109 howitzers. But even the best-equipped brigade can’t hold the line forever—and two years is a long time to be in combat without a unit-wide break.

Just ask the Ukrainian army’s 47th Mechanized Brigade. That brigade fought nonstop in the south and east starting in June 2023, receiving a steady supply of American-made M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles to keep its battalions up to full strength. But after 15 months of combat, the brigade was exhausted—and finally rotated off the front line this month despite a shortage of well-equipped brigades to replace it.

The 72nd Mechanized Brigade has achieved a rare feat: defending the same front-line town for nearly two years against a consistently larger enemy force. Now it needs help—if not replacement.

But by which unit? The Ukrainian armed forces are simultaneously attacking in Kursk while defending in the east and south. They’re stretched thin. And 14 new brigades the army is standing up are desperately short of modern vehicles. According to Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky, there are enough vehicles to fully equip just four of the brigades.