A day after getting surrounded and cut off by advancing Russian troops just north of the village of Prohres, two battalions of Ukrainian soldiers from the Ukrainian army’s 31st Mechanized Brigade made a hard decision.
Rather than waiting for rescue, the encircled Ukrainians fought their way out on Thursday. The rest of the 31st Mechanized Brigade, along with the nearby 47th Mechanized Brigade, apparently assisted the break-out.
“With the help of coordinated actions of artillery, air reconnaissance and related forces, as well as under the control of officers on the ground, the guys from the 1st and 3rd Battalions were able to break out of the encirclement in full force,” Ukrainian analysis group Deep State reported.
The successful evacuation saved potentially hundreds of Ukrainian troops from death or capture—and deprived the Kremlin of a major propaganda victory. But it doesn’t address Ukrainian forces’ fundamental failure in the sector around Prohres: a failure of leadership.
The Russian advance toward Prohres began last week after Russian warplanes “carried out powerful air strikes on the tactical rear,” according to the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies. Amid the confusion, one of the Ukrainian brigades in the sector—possibly the 110th Mechanized Brigade or the 111th Territorial Defense Brigade—collapsed.
To be clear, it wasn’t the brigade’s rank and file who failed—it was their leaders. “The main problem,” Ukrainian correspondent Yuriy Butusov reported, “is primarily in the management and organization of our actions.”
“When a poorly managed crew is attacked, it can’t hold,” Butusov explained.
As Ukrainian troops fled, a clutch of motor rifle regiments from the Russian 1st Army Corps seized the opportunity—and marched four miles to the west in the span of a week, ultimately capturing Prohres and sweeping around those two Ukrainian battalions north of the village.
The surrounded Ukrainians then experienced their own leadership crisis, according to Deep State. “The brigade commander never gave the order to break through, so the personnel who were in that area confronted him with the fact that the boys would break through with a fight.”
That is to say, the encircled Ukrainian troops decided, on their own, to battle their way to the main Ukrainian line hundreds of yards to the west. “This case should be a reminder to many commanders not to neglect personnel and trust the [non-commissioned officers] and officers who are on the direct line of battle,” Deep State commented.
The wider battle continues. After consolidating their control over Prohres, Russian troops also occupied the adjacent village of Vovche. Ukrainian volunteers have been rescuing civilians from the front line while the army redoubles its efforts to halt the Russian advance.
Losses are high on both sides. The elite 47th Mechanized Brigade, the main operator of Ukraine’s best American-made armored vehicles, has lost two of its precious M-1 Abrams tanks around Vovche in just the past three weeks.
Sources:
1. Deep State: https://t.me/DeepStateUA/19966
2. Yuriy Butusov: https://www.facebook.com/butusov.yuriy/posts/pfbid02bReTHGpWHbw8VWzJSeQfhYdHRLnk1AT1QkgzR2LYzXJQ9CDBnKktiAquFL2KaLcxl
3. @lost_warinua: https://x.com/lost_warinua/status/1816370329037533588; https://x.com/lost_warinua/status/1810001373724827927
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