Battle of Vuhledar

A series of military engagements have taken place in and around the town of Vuhledar in western Donetsk Oblast over the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian commanders have described the clashes as "the largest tank battle" of the Russo-Ukrainian War to date.

March–October 2022: Shelling and combat at Pavlivka
In early March, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian and DPR forces captured the town of Volnovakha and began cementing a siege on Mariupol, connecting with troops in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and effectively seizing much of southern Ukraine. After the loss of Volnovakha, Ukraine's 53rd Mechanized Brigade retreated to Vuhledar. On 14 March, the Ukrainian military claimed that the Russian military was attempting to break through in the direction of Vuhledar. On 6 April, Russian forces shelled a humanitarian aid distribution center in Vuhledar, killing four people and injuring an additional four. The next day, Donetsk Oblast head Pavlo Kyrylenko said that battles were ongoing in Vuhledar.

Three civilians were killed by Russian shelling in Vuhledar on 3 May. A Ukrainian soldier was killed by artillery shelling near Vuhledar on 11 June. On 21 June, Ukraine's 53rd Brigade recaptured Pavlivka, south of Vuhledar, claiming to have only lost one soldier killed and three wounded during the operation to retake the village. The opposing forces had numbered about 150 men, comprising Russian marines, ten of whom were taken prisoner, and separatist forces, "dozens" of whom were killed in action, according to the Ukrainians.

On 10 August, the Ukrainian military claimed that Russian forces had shelled Vuhledar.

Ukraine's military claimed on 27 and 28 August that Russian assaults on Pavlivka and Prechystivka, both near Vuhledar, had been repelled.

The Ukrainian military claimed that Russian forces had shelled Vuhledar on 21 September, and that it had repelled a Russian assault near Pavlivka on 28 September.

October 2022–January 2023: Capture of Pavlivka and approach towards Vuhledar
According to Russian military bloggers, Russian forces launched an assault on Pavlivka from positions near the villages of Yehorivka, Donetsk Oblast and Mykilske on the night between 28 and 29 October. Some Russian sources claimed that the Russian forces broke through Ukrainian defenses and managed to enter the southeastern outskirts of Pavlivka. Out of 60 men in a platoon from the Russian 155th Naval Infantry Brigade, about 40 were killed and only eight escaped serious injury assaulting the town during late October.

A Russian military blogger claimed that Russian forces were in control of half of Pavlivka by 31 October. Daniil Beznosov, a DPR official, claimed on 1 November that ongoing offensives near Pavlivka and Novomykhailivka were likely intended to encircle Ukrainian forces in Vuhledar. By 2 November, Russian sources said that the fighting around Pavlivka and Vuhledar had "slowed, but not stopped". According to David Axe of Forbes, by 4 November, Russia's 155th Brigade and 40th Naval Infantry Brigade had suffered as many as 300 casualties during the assaults on Pavlivka. Members of the 155th Brigade published a letter criticizing commander Rustam Muradov and calling the offensive on Pavlivka "incomprehensible".

Simultaneously, Russian forces struck infrastructure facilities in Vuhledar on 2 November with missiles and Iranian Shahed-136 drones. On 20 December, Russian strikes killed a civilian in Vuhledar. According to Nazarii Kishak, a commander in Ukraine's 72nd Brigade on the frontline in Vuhledar, his unit, the 48th Battalion, managed to kill 11 Russians on 26 December, compared with 400 within four days the previous month. Other Ukrainian commanders in the area expressed concern about the stability of the town's defense, as local doctors received up to 60 Ukrainian casualties a day. The same source also claimed that the Russians were using a 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled heavy mortar, which, at 240mm, is the largest currently in use. In December, soldiers of Sergei Shoigu's PMC Patriot were spotted for the first time near Vuhledar. Also in December, public information surfaced that Sukhrab Akhmedov, commander of the 155th Marine Brigade, could be removed from his position, along with brigade commander Mikhail Gudkov. However, by June 2023, Akhmedov had been transferred to Kreminna.

Main battle (24 January – 15 February 2023)


The largest assault on Vuhledar throughout the war began on the night of 24 January 2023. On 25 January, war correspondent Andriy Rudenko stated that Ukrainian troops had lost the first line of defence near the town and withdrawn to the city. DNR spokesman Daniil Bezsonov claimed that the DPR's Kaskad Battalion had participated in an advance, along with members of the Russian 155th Naval Infantry Brigade.

Localized offensives took place by Russian forces on 25 January, although British intelligence assessed it was unlikely that these assaults were able to hold any ground. The spokesman for the Ukrainian Eastern Command, Serhii Cherevatyi, claimed Russian troops fired at Vuhledar 322 times on 26 January, with 58 localized battles taking place. Ukrainian troops also repulsed Russian attacks on the western part of the town on January 26, although Russian forces consolidated some positions around the eastern half. Cherevatyi also claimed 109 Russian troops were killed and 188 were wounded. That same day, Belarusian volunteer and activist Eduard Lobau was killed in action fighting near Vuhledar.

On 27 January, Russian forces bombarded Vuhledar with a TOS-1 thermobaric rocket launcher. In the following days, Russian forces suffered heavy casualties during the battle, with the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade taking the brunt of the losses. By January 31, British intelligence claimed Russian advances in Vuhledar were unlikely to make any additional progress.

According to Austrian-based analyst Tom Cooper from 2 February, the 155th Marine Brigade may have lost 200-230 men killed in action over the first three days of the operation, with the Ukrainians claiming to have shot down 5-6 Ka-52 helicopters between 24 and 28 January. He even mentioned a rumor "that all the involved Russian units suffered 'up to 20,000 casualties' (KIA, WIA, MIA) over the last week". However, Cooper regarded the latter to be "wildly exaggerated", and believed that a strike on 1,500 Russian reinforcements gathered in a single building in the nearby village of Kyryoovka (which reportedly inflicted 'hundreds' of casualties) may have caused the above reports of massive Russian losses in the Vuhledar area.

In early February, videos emerged from Vuhledar alleging to show a destroyed Russian column near the town. A Russian assault around 6 February saw 30 tanks and other heavy weapons destroyed by Ukrainian artillery. In an interview by RFE/RL, relatives of killed soldiers stated that many Tatar volunteers from the Alga Battalion were killed in the 6 February attack. These heavy losses saw the main fighting units in Vuhledar become the 72nd Motor Rifle Brigade, composed predominantly of Tatars. The town's deputy mayor, Maksym Verbovsky, stated that Russian troops were attempting to surround the town from two sides, having advanced to nearby villages although being forced to fall back by Ukrainian defenses.

A Russian offensive was initiated against the Ukrainian defensive line during the second week of February. On 8 February, an offensive of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), and infantry failed with large losses, including the loss of nearly 30 armored vehicles, IFVs and tanks. The Ukrainian military announced almost the entire Russian 155th Naval Infantry Brigade was destroyed and Russia has lost 130 units of equipment, including 36 tanks. In the same announcement, they also claimed that the Russians were losing 150-300 marines killed per day in the battle. General Rustam Muradov, commander of the Eastern Military District and of the Vuhledar offensive came under fire for the failure to achieve the objective. On 13 February, a Russian soldier from the 3rd Company of the 155th Brigade said that 500 soldiers had been killed during one assault, and that he was one of only eight survivors from his 100-man company. On 15 February, Ben Wallace, the British Secretary of State for Defence, said that over 1,000 Russian troops had been killed over just two days, and that an entire Russian brigade had effectively been "annihilated". In a video appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin published on 25 March 2023, around 20 members of a unit tasked with assaulting Vuhledar, identified as the Storm Squad, the 5th Brigade of the 1st Corps of the Russian 8th Army, claimed that their commanders were utilizing anti-retreat troops to force them to advance. They stated that up to 304 of its members had been killed, including the company's commander, and that 22 had been wounded.

Since February 2023
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed that between 15 and 23 February, Russian forces continued to launch assaults on Vuhledar, although with no significant territorial changes. The ISW also claimed elements of the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade refused to participate in some assaults. By late February, Russian troops had lost so many tanks and vehicles from the first battle that they shifted towards infantry attacks on the town. Speaking to the New York Times, Vladislav Bayak, a commander in the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, claimed many Ukrainian counterattacks are done through ambushing the Russian vehicles using drones or waiting until the tanks are within range of Ukrainian anti-tank missiles.

In March 2023, British intelligence claimed Russian military leadership had not abandoned the prospect of capturing Vuhledar, and that a second large offensive was plausible. On 14 March, a Ukrainian soldier found a notebook apparently belonging to an as-yet unnamed Russian officer. The notebook seemed to provide a daily tally of manpower in a battalion-size assault group. A hundred soldiers attacked Ukrainian positions on 2 March, according to the notes. Just 16 came back. Two days later, 116 Russians attacked. Twenty-three survived. On 4 March, 103 soldiers left their bivouac. Just 15 came back. The next day, out of 115 attackers, three returned. According to the notes, that single Russian formation lost 377 troops in just a few days.

On 15 April, Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi posted a photo of at least four destroyed Russian tanks near Vuhledar. Along with the picture, he stated that "Orcs [Russian troops] are resting [i.e., lying dead – ed.] near Vuhledar. Defence forces are holding positions near the town and preventing the enemy from approaching [the city of – ed.] Avdiivka. Our artillery is working precisely, and every soldier in the foxholes performs at the highest level." On 21 April, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi described how his forces had again defeated the 155th Separate Marine Brigade, and that the Ukrainian 35th Marine and 56th Brigades had captured more than twenty Russian marines during a counterattack. Between 26 and 28 April, Ukrainian forces claimed to have destroyed at least four T-80 and T-72 tanks near Nevel's'ke, a town just 20 miles south of Vuhledar.

In May 2023, Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline near Vuhledar stated that Ukrainian forces in the area were lacking in heavy weapons, and Russian forces still held a numerical advantage in terms of troops and weaponry. Around this same time, the British Ministry of Defense stated the 155th Separate Marine Brigade had "likely been reduced to combat-ineffective status."

On 2 November 2023, the 155th Marine Brigade again attempted an assault on Vuhledar, and was defeated by the Ukrainian 72nd Brigade. Casualties were reportedly heavy, with perhaps a thousand Russian lives lost, along with 60 vehicle losses (including T-72B3 and T-80BV tanks) compared to 17 vehicles lost by the Ukrainians in a single day.

On 10 March 2024, Ukrainian forces claimed to have repulsed a column of Russian vehicles.

On 4 May, the Ukrainians published photos of 32 damaged or destroyed Russian vehicles following an assault by the 5th Tank Brigade, the 37th Motorized Rifle Brigade, and the 40th Naval Infantry Brigade. While the exact date of the attack was unspecified, it must have been recent, as some of the vehicles are "turtle tanks", which Russia has only started to use in recent weeks.

On 1 July, Ukrainian forces published footage of a destroyed Russian column which attempted an assault toward the city. The aftermath footage consisted of combat vehicles, tanks, at least 14 motorcycles and killed infantry.

Impact
In February 2023, Deputy Mayor Verbovsky stated that Vuhledar "was destroyed", with "one hundred percent of the buildings damaged;" fewer than 500 civilians, and only one child, remained in the town once populated with 15,000 residents. The town no longer has running water or electricity because of the damage inflicted on it, with civilians being forced to collect rainwater to drink in February.

On 26 March 2023, Russian media reported that Muradov was demoted from his position as Commander of Eastern Military District. While this news was not officially confirmed by the Russian government, head of Russian military analysis channel Rybar, Mikhail Zvinchuk, stated that Muradov had been given a vacation that is "almost tantamount to resignation". Following this, Russian war correspondents claimed that he had been replaced as acting commander of the Eastern Military District by Lieutenant General Andrey Kuzmenko, despite officially remaining at its head.

A May 2023 report by ReliefWeb stated that Vuhledar urban hromada, an administrative unit that contains Vuhledar and four other nearby villages, had only 1,100 civilians left out of a pre-war population of 26,000. Most of the civilians are elderly, and all services like food, water, electricity, and healthcare are nonexistent. In June, RadioFreeEurope reported 60 civilians, including three children were killed since fighting began in Vuhledar.

On 26 October 2023, the Institute for the Study of War, an American-based think-tank, assessed that Russian armored losses around Vuhledar prevented the Russian command from committing to sustained mechanized assaults elsewhere in Ukraine in the spring and winter of 2023.

Analysis
Vuhledar is situated on a height above the operationally significant T0509 highway between Velyka Novosilka and Novotroitske, and is key to fire control of the highway.

Ukrainian officials have called the battle of Vuhledar "the biggest tank battle of the war", with over 130 Russian tanks and APCs being damaged or destroyed in the course of the battle. Analysts believed many of the Russian casualties and loss of equipment stemmed from the makeup of the Russian brigades, being predominantly untrained mobilized recruits. Military experts told the Wall Street Journal that the heavy Russian losses indicated that the soldiers likely lacked autonomy to adapt to events on the battlefield, possibly combined with poor training of recently mobilized troops.