Breakthrough In The South: Ukrainian Forces Completely Defeated Russian BSF Marine Brigade
- 24.09.2023, 8:09
The elite unit of the occupiers was destroyed.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked and destroyed the building of the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Many high-ranking representatives of the Russian command were killed and wounded. However, these explosions in temporarily occupied Crimea were not the only defeat for the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
During the counteroffensive in the west of the Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian Defence Forces destroyed the 810th Separate Marine Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet. Summary of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reads.
Analysts refer to information from the head of the GUR (Ukrainian Defence Intelligence) Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov. He stated in his interview with The War Zone published on September 22 that the 810th Brigade was “completely defeated” in southern Ukraine, its remnants withdrew and were replaced at the front by Russian airborne troops.
According to experts, Budanov‘s description of the status of the 810th Brigade corresponds most closely to the US military‘s doctrinal definition of the tactical mission task of “destroy”: “physically render[ing] an enemy force combat-ineffective until reconstituted.”
It is noted that elements of the 810th Brigade have reportedly been operating in the Zaporizhia direction since March 2023 and in the western Zaporizhzhia region since June 2023.
In October 2022, the 810th brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was observed in the Kherson region, where it was likely recovering in the rear in the interim period before taking up positions in Zaporizhzhia.
“The 810th Brigade has repeatedly suffered significant losses, and Ukrainian forces have destroyed the unit in the past, following which the Russian military has reconstituted it,” ISW noted.
Analysts recalled that the Ukrainian General Staff reported on April 19, 2022, that the 158 soldiers of the 810th Brigade had been killed and about 500 wounded. GUR Deputy Chief Major General Vadym Skibitskyi stated on July 31, 2022, that 200 servicemen of the 810th Brigade refused to return to the war in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian General Staff reported on September 12, 2022, that the 810th Brigade lost more than 85% of its personnel in the Kherson direction and that many again refused to return to combat.
Recall, that Budanov said on September 23 that the Ukrainian strike on the Russian BSF Command headquarters wounded the commander of the Russian grouping of forces in the Zaporizhia direction, Colonel General Alexander Romanchuk, who is in “very serious condition” and the commander of the 200th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (Northern Fleet), Lieutenant General Oleg Tsekov, who is “unconscious.”
According to Budanov, as a result of those powerful explosions at least nine were killed and 16 soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces were injured.
Voice of America reported that the GUR has no information about the alleged death of the Russian BSF commander Admiral Viktor Sokolov.