Elite Ukrainian brigade disappeared during Ocheretyne battle: Forbes
3 Min Read
A vacuum of Ukrainian forces allows the Russian army's 30th Motor Rifle Brigade to advance along a railway line west from Avdiivka and seize a narrow corridor.
-
Ukrainian soldiers with the 71st Jaeger Brigade fire a M101 howitzer at Russian positions on the front line, near the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, on March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
The 47th Mechanized Brigade stands as one of the Ukrainian army's elite units, equipped with American-manufactured armored vehicles and trained to NATO standards, Forbes reported Tuesday.
According to the report, during Ukraine's southern counteroffensive last June, the Brigade played a pivotal role. In October, when Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian garrison in Avdiivka, located in the east, the 47th Mechanized Brigade swiftly redeployed from the south to reinforce the city. Although this delayed the garrison's eventual retreat, it couldn't prevent it entirely.
For nearly a year, the 47th Mechanized Brigade has been in continuous combat, resulting in exhausted soldiers and depleted resources, particularly their top-tier M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and M-1 Abrams tanks, Forbes noted.
As the 47th Mechanized Brigade withdrew from the front line east of Ocheretyne village over the weekend for a break, Russian forces launched an attack and came close to breaking through Ukrainian defenses into a 20-mile-wide stretch of undefended territory separating the city of Pokrovsk from the front line, the report mentioned.
The plan was for the 115th Mechanized Brigade to replace the 47th along the front. However, according to Mykola Melnyk, a renowned company commander in the 47th who lost a leg during the summer counteroffensive, "certain units f***** off."
Expecting to encounter fresh troops from the 115th Mechanized Brigade in the trenches formerly held by the 47th Mechanized Brigade, Russian scouts and drone operators "found ... no one" from the 115th Brigade, the report revealed.
Forbes pointed out that this vacuum allowed the Russian army's 30th Motor Rifle Brigade to advance along a railway line west from Avdiivka, seizing a narrow corridor that appeared on maps "like a five-mile-long knife stabbing into the Ukrainian line."
It explained that had the Russians penetrated deeper, the entire Ukrainian defense west of Avdiivka might have collapsed, compelling tens of thousands of troops and potentially hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee Donetsk Oblast.
The Russian forces halted their advance into the Ukrainian rear this weekend solely because the 47th Mechanized Brigade, in the process of withdrawing, reversed course and re-engaged in combat, the report indicated.
In the subsequent days, the Russians expanded their foothold slightly but refrained from pushing further to the west, Forbes said, adding, "Disaster averted for Ukraine, for now."
However, the conflict continues unabated, and should the Russians deploy reinforcements to the salient, they could potentially broaden their offensive, the report concluded.
Read more: US pushes to deliver military aid to Ukraine before May 9: Politico
