Unit Observer
On October 1st, 2024 the ruins of Vuhledar were fully occupied by 🇷🇺Russian forces. The famous lynchpin of Ukraine’s southeastern front that had withstood the attacks of hundreds of Russian vehicles in the first two years of the war - charred husks of BMPs, BTRs and T-series tanks still populate the fields south of Vuhledar to this day - had given in. The Ukrainian unit that led the defence of Vuhledar, the 🇺🇦72nd Mechanized Brigade, was rotated out of the area soon after the city fell for rest and recovery, after two straight years spent on the frontline. In the same days, some 30 kilometers west, the 🇺🇦58th Motorized Brigade would leave the Velyka Novosilka front for the northern border of Kharkiv oblast. Another “leading” Ukrainian unit, acting as headquarters for attached units in a ~20km wide sector, had now left the southern edge of Donetsk oblast. These two rotations would spell the end of frontline stability in southern Donetsk.
