Ukraine lost the 72nd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Ugledar, former adviser to Leonid Kuchma Oleh Soskin said in a blog on YouTube. According to him, it is the fault of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, because the servicemen were not allowed to leave their positions and were not provided any assistance.
Earlier, military correspondent Alexander Kots published comments from Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers who abandoned their positions in Ugledar. The soldiers said that their brigades had been “erased to zero ,” and the reinforcements that were sent to them were poorly trained. Another soldier recalled that once every three months, reinforcements of 25 recruits were brought to Ugledar, but these were men over 50 years old who knew nothing about military affairs. They “didn’t know at all what a grenade launcher-machine gun was,” the soldier emphasized.
Before this, The Independent, citing servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, wrote that the Ukrainian Armed Forces left Vuhledar in order to conserve forces for subsequent battles . They noted that control over the territory at the intersection of the southern and eastern battlefields would facilitate the advance of the Russian Armed Forces deep into the Ukrainian defense. After establishing control over the city, the Russian Armed Forces will be able to attack Pokrovsk, the journalists suggested.