72nd Mechanized Brigade Executes Tactical Fighting Withdrawal From Vuhledar

Living to fight another day - and inflicting some pain on their way out of town. JL

Decimus reports in Daily Kos:

The Ukrainian 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, famously known as the Black Zaporozhians, (executed) a tactical fighting withdrawal from Vuhledar, considered one of the most difficult maneuvers to effectively pull off. It was the sensible thing to do.  Live and fight another day. Even as they moved out, the Black Zaporozhian Cossacks faced off with a Russian BMP-2 in a “Shoot Out at O.K. Corral” fashion, knocking out the Russian vehicle, placing a Ukrainian flag on it and driving off with it.

This is a follow up to my recent dairy in which some elements of the Ukrainian 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, famously known as the Black Zaporozhians,  recently posted on Facebook that no matter how dire the situation confronting them at “Fortress Vuhledar” they are still standing their ground and intend to fight.

Even to the casual observer, the unfolding Russian onslaught against Vuhledar had assumed such proportions that the eventual outcome was just a mere question of time.  The only remaining question was how long it would take before Ukrainian top brass gave the order for a tactical fighting withdrawal from Vuhledar onto the next Ukrainian defensive line.  In the earlier dairy I also indicated that by all military indices, a tactical fighting withdrawal is considered one of the most difficult maneuvers to effectively pull off.  The ever present danger of a mistake turning the whole movement into a rout hangs over the entire proceeding.

When the news came a couple of days ago that the Commander of the 72nd brigade, Colonel Ivan Vinnik had been either “fired” or withdrawn for promotion and transfer to another unit(no official reason yet given), the writing seemed to be on the wall.  Vinnik had led the heroic defense of Vuhledar since August 2022.  Vuhledar is not analogous to Azovstal  but one could easily speculate that some, if not a substantial number of those who had made the long heroic stand somehow were reluctant to leave their post for whatever reason, especially with the storied resistance of the Azov Battalion in Mariupol now etched into the Ukrainian national psyche.  No one knows for sure.  What is for sure is that the Russians have managed to break into Vuhledar and while there are reports that the fight continues in parts of the town, the bulk of the 72nd appear to have made the retrograde.  It would be the sensible thing to do.  Live and fight another day.

 

That the Black Zaporozhians are still taking the fight to the Russians even as they move out is evidenced by a few videos that have just come on line.  Here’s one showing the Black Zaporozhian Cossacks facing off with a Russian BMP-2 in a “Shoot Out at O.K. Corral” fashion, knocking out the Russian vehicle, placing a Ukrainian flag on it and driving off with it:

Ya gotta love such fighting spirit and derring-do from the Ukrainians.  Their ancestors for whom they’re named, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, would be proud… fearless and undaunted.