The 72nd Brigade is withdrawing from Vuhledar: “It would have been critically difficult to hold the town any longer”

The withdrawal of the Defense Forces from Vuhledar, Donetsk region, minimized the losses of the Defense Forces. It would have been critically difficult for Ukrainian units to hold the city in the future. This was stated by Arseniy Prylipka, a spokesman for the 72nd separate mechanized brigade of the Black Zaporozhian Army of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in a commentaryto Radio Liberty, UNN reports. 

The wounded were evacuated, and the conditions were very difficult because the enemy was pressing from the flanks, which made logistics very difficult. First of all, we had to evacuate our soldiers from Vuhledar, from the positions to the right and left of it. But the wounded were taken out. Of course, this is war. It cannot be without losses. But by retreating to another line and occupying it, we minimized them as much as possible. It would have been difficult for our units to hold the city further, and we would have suffered more losses

When asked how the decision to leave Vuhledar was made, Prylipka said: "In the army, everything is done by order, by command. According to the hierarchy. And from the higher command, they know the situation, they act. And then the brigade commander makes the decision. And then it depends on the situation on the battlefield, which unit goes out, in what way, and by what routes.

"It's very easy to comment and accuse the command of making certain decisions without being at the command post and having the situation and information that the brigade commander has," the spokesman added.

Recall 

On October 2, the Khortytsia military unit reported that the higher command had authorized the withdrawal of units from Vuhledar to "preserve personnel and military equipment"