The elite 155th Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet Marines, which participated in the battle for Vugledar that Russian troops have attempted to seize since 2022, has lost 2,400 personnel, according to a documentary by the BBC Russian Service. This accounts for 80% of the brigade’s strength at the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with approximately 3,000 servicemen prior to the war.
The 155th Brigade has been involved in combat operations on the Ukrainian front since the first days of the war, and since autumn 2022, it has been concentrated on the Vugledar direction. In November of that year, Russian military bloggers reported significant losses for the brigade during an assault near Pavlivka, located three kilometers from Vugledar. Military correspondent Alexander Sladkov and Z-blogger Anastasia Kashevarova noted that the marines complained to Primorye Governor Oleg Kozhemyako about substantial and “pointless” losses, which the soldiers estimated to be around 300 men over four days.
In February 2023, the head of the press center for the Tavriya Defense Forces, Oleksiy Dmytrashkovskyi, stated that Russian command had to reinforce the brigade several times: the first time after battles in Irpin and Bucha, the second after the defeat near Donetsk, and the third reinforcement was almost entirely wiped out near Vugledar in the winter of the previous year.
Currently, the 155th Brigade is operating in the Kursk region, where it was relocated in August 2024 following the onset of the Ukrainian offensive in Russian territory.
Vugledar was captured by Russian troops in early October of this year. Prior to this, the Russian Armed Forces, suffering heavy losses, made multiple unsuccessful attempts to gain control of the settlement. Fighting for this city has been ongoing since autumn 2022, with virtually all buildings there destroyed. Before the war, Vugledar had a population of about 15,000 people.
The history of the 155th Brigade vividly illustrates the exhaustion of Russian units, which command regularly sends into “meat assaults.” According to British intelligence estimates, Russian troop losses in September, during fierce battles for Vugledar, averaged 1,271 men per day— the highest figure since the start of the war. The previous record of 1,262 men per day was recorded in May when Russia made a failed attempt to advance on Kharkiv.
By September 2024, total losses for the Russian army in Ukraine reached 610,000, according to the British Ministry of Defense. Among these, 200,000 are reported killed, comparable to the populations of cities like Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk or Pskov, while 400,000 have been wounded, half of whom have become disabled. This figure exceeds losses in all of Russia’s wars since the end of World War II.
The scale of losses is attributed to the “human wave” tactics employed by Russian command, sending infantry into assaults without proper training and support. To compensate for these losses, Russia requires a continuous influx of new soldiers into its army.
