ISW: Russian troops forced out of Bakhmut have been twice defeated in Ukraine

The 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of Russia, parts of which were defeated in the Donetsk region near Bakhmut, had previously suffered crushing defeats twice in Kharkiv region and Kherson region.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported this in a daily update.

"Pervasive issues with Russian combat capability, exacerbated by continued attritional assaults in the Bakhmut area, are likely considerably constraining the ability of Russian forces in this area to defend against localized Ukrainian counterattacks," the ISW experts. "The 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade itself is emblematic of many of the endemic force generation issues constantly faced by the Russian military."

As the report emphasizes, on August 7, 2022, ISW analysts reported that the 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade was being formed in the Orenburg Region of the Russian Federation as part of the 3rd Army Corps, a new formation that mainly consists of volunteer battalions.

In September 2022, the media reported that the 3rd Army Corps of the Russian Federation had deployed in the Kharkiv region and that the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region had primarily destroyed the parts of the corps. The report notes that there was probably the 72nd separate motorized rifle brigade among them.

ISW also recalled that the Ukrainian media assumed that after the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, the surviving elements of the 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade were probably redeployed to the Mykolayiv region, where they suffered losses during Ukraine's southern counteroffensive in October 2022.

ISW is unable to confirm the current whereabouts of brigade units. The institute also cannot confirm where the 72nd Brigade was relocated after withdrawing Russian troops from the western bank of the Dnieper. However, analysts noted, it is highly likely that elements of the 72nd Brigade, which were recently redeployed to the Bakhmut area, are not operating there at full strength.

"The Russian military command's apparent commitment of elements of a formation that has suffered two successive defeats to the Bakhmut axis alongside already attrited Wagner elements likely offer Ukrainian forces opportunities to exploit with limited counterattacks," the report emphasizes.

We will remind, on May 10, the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, confirmed the information previously reported by the military commanders that the Defense Forces of Ukraine forced the Russian terrorists to retreat to a distance of 2 kilometers in the Bakhmut direction.