Certain number of wounded could not be evacuated from Vuhledar, 72nd Brigade commander admits

During the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Vuhledar, Donetsk Oblast, it was not possible to pick up some of the wounded, but this is not the number that the Russians are talking about, Oleksandr Okhrimenko, the new commander of the 72nd Black Zaporozhians Separate Mechanized Brigade, which defended the settlement, said in an interview with Glavcom.

Russian "milbloggers" earlier claimed that Ukrainian wounded soldiers were left there during the exit from the city.

Commenting on this, Okhrimenko said: "Objectively, during such active hostilities, it is impossible to say with full confidence that it was possible to evacuate all 100% of the wounded. The evacuation was carried out. We were able to evacuate some of the wounded with the means of medical units, we used combat vehicles of infantry units that were intended for evacuation assistance. But, unfortunately, we could not take a certain number of people."

Under enemy fire, evacuation groups sometimes could not reach the evacuation points or meeting points, he said.

"During the maneuver defense and withdrawal under fire, it was indeed not possible to evacuate everyone. I will not name the figures because every soldier is valuable and important to us, but it is not the number that the enemy's war correspondents are claiming; they are exaggerating by several times," Okhrimenko added.

On October 2, the Ukrainian Armed Forces officially announced that the defense forces had withdrawn from Vuhledar.

The enemy was pressing from the flanks, and the situation was complex. Ukrainian military personnel were evacuating from Vuhledar when they found themselves in a tactical encirclement.

On October 6, the former commander of the 72nd Brigade revealed that the Russians had a tenfold advantage in artillery around Vuhledar.

Read also: Ukrainian forces faced tactical encirclement in Vuhledar, new 72nd Brigade commander explains