Vuhledar: the fall, the mass mutiny, the suicide

How Vuhledar fell. The 'butcher' commander of the 72nd. Bloody, late retreat and Zelensky's US trip. Exhaustion of the 72nd and mass desertion in the mobilized 123rd. Suicide of the 123rd's commander

Note to readers: since my readership is English-language, I am using the place names for these small Donbass towns most familiar to the audience of western media - Vuhledar (the Ukrainian version), not Ugledar (the Russian one). For those interested, both versions mean the same thing ‘Coal Gift’. Vuhledar was founded in the 1960s as a coal town in Soviet Ukraine.

And after years of grinding warfare, this strategic town was taken by the Russian army on October 2. The Ukrainian unit defending it, the 72nd brigade, finally took leave of the scene.

Key points covered today:

• The post-mortem analysis of how Vuhledar fell, made by Azov military analysts and war journalists

• The replacement of the popular commander of the 72nd with an infamous ‘butcher’ days before the retreat

• Claims that the bloody retreat was made far too late (many also tie it with Zelensky’s visit to the US)

• The military details of the ‘collapse of the front’ at and around Vuhledar, and how it threatens to spread elsewhere. Poorly trained, unmotivated mobilized troops

• The exhaustion of the 72nd, forced to take up new positions as its mobilized reinforcements in the 123rd territorial defense desert/mutiny en masse

• The subsequent suicide of the commander of the 123rd