Russia’s ‘elite’ marine brigade reconstituted eight times since start of war, says ISW
Footage of the wrecked equipment of the Russian 155th Marine Brigade in Vuhledar, February 2023 (Photo:DeepStateUA / Telegram)
Russia’s “elite” 155th Marine Brigade has been destroyed and rebuilt eight times since the start of the full-scale war, the US-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in their assessment on March 25.
According to ISW, this has largely been a result of the heavy losses sustained by the Russian marines during their prolonged efforts to capture Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast.
Russia’s 155th brigade suffered substantial losses in equipment and personnel when they were defeated by Ukrainian forces near Vuhledar in early February 2023. In the following week, the occupiers lost 130 armored vehicles.
Also, the 155th brigade suffered a crushing defeat in November 2022 near Pavlivka, in the Volnovakha district of Donetsk Oblast.
Analysts have noted that a second wave of sharp criticism regarding the tactics of the Russian military command near Vuhledar has erupted in the Russian information space from some well-known Russian military bloggers.
ISW analysts added that they, “criticized the Russian military command for continuing to impale Russian forces on Vuhledar with ineffective human-wave style frontal assaults”, resulting in heavy combat losses and a lack of any success.
Such tactics did not work anywhere along the front line and did not allow the Russians to maintain a significant pace of advance, ISW added.
Pro-Russian military bloggers (so-called “milbloggers”) believe that it would be better to cut Ukrainian land supply lines in Vuhledar, striking the rear of Ukrainian forces and surrounding the city.
However, some bloggers hint that Russian troops will not be able to implement this plan due to a shortage of ammunition and failure to capture many settlements around Vuhledar.
ISW believes that “the re-emergence of vitriolic criticism about Russian failures near Vuhledar likely reflects the information space’s ongoing frustration with the Russian military command amid deep-seated fear about a prospective future Ukrainian counter-offensive.”
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