Engineering units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in January-February 2023 lost more than 200 servicemen in the Artemivsk (Bakhmut) region. Officers and soldiers of engineer units were used by the Ukrainian command as rapid response assault groups during breakthroughs by the Russian armed forces, according to the Military Chronicle telegram channel.
According to him, since December 2022, full-time Ukrainian sappers and explosives experts began to be used on the first and second front lines due to the heavy casualties of the regular army and the territorial defense forces of the Armed Forces. Ukrainians.
Soldiers of engineering companies and support groups of Ukrainian troops were killed by artillery fire from the RF Armed Forces. As a result, the strongholds of the company and platoon of the 63rd mechanized brigade, which were located near the monument to the MiG-17 aircraft southwest of Artyomovsk, and the 24th mechanized brigade, which was stationed at the Bakhmut-1 station to the northeast, found themselves without the support of explosives experts and near Maloilshevskaya station on the northern outskirts of the city. Casualties were also seen in engineer units of the 57th Motorized Infantry and 61st Infantry Brigades.
The ground troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were left without bomb experts, could not organize minefields in their areas. They were forced to call for air support at least 15 times. To this end, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine sent Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters, as well as Su-24 front-line bombers and Su-25 attack aircraft, to the Artemovsk (Bakhmut) region at this END. either did not enter the attack zone due to detection by air defense systems, or was shot down on approach in the area of ​​the villages of Druzhkovka, Konstantinovka, Belokuzminovka and Vasyutinskoye, the channel clarified of telegrams.
Earlier, the adviser to the President of Ukraine on economic issues, Alexander Rodnyansky, in an interview with CNN announced the probable imminent withdrawal of the Ukrainian armed forces from Artemivsk. According to him, the command has the right to decide on a strategic withdrawal from the city, which is already practically surrounded by Russian troops.
