See This: Wagner Group Unit Destroyed Outside Bakhmut – A video shared on social media on Wednesday afternoon purported to show a number of Wagner Group troops coming under attack from Ukrainian forces outside of Bakhmut.
A small unit of Russian mercenaries could be seen advancing in rugged terrain in the 35-second-long clip when incoming artillery targeted their position.
It appeared that at least several of the men may have been within the blast radius.
The video was apparently taken by a drone operated by the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU).
The artillery was reportedly fired by the NGU’s 14th “Chervona Kalyna” Brigade – a unit raised as the 8th Operational Regiment in November 2014.
It was previously garrisoned in the town of Kalynivka in the Vinnytsia Oblast of Western Ukraine, and this past January was expanded and reformed into the 14th Operational Brigade under the Offensive Guard program. Oleksandr Okhrimenko is the current commander of the unit.
Its motto is “The enemy smolders where the viburnum turns red” and based on Wednesday’s video, it has been successful in seeing some of its enemies literally smoldering.
Offensive Guard Forces
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine created its Offensive Guard assault bridges, calling upon volunteers who would help liberate Ukrainian territories from the Russian occupiers.
It was announced this new force would consist of several assault brigades of the National Guard, the National Police, and the State Border Guard Service.
The officer corps will continue to rely on sergeants and soldiers who have combat experience and showed themselves in the best way during the defense of Donbas in 2014 and the liberation of the Kharkiv region in 2022.
In addition, it would create “Stormtrooper” units that could participate in the liberation of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, as well as Crimea.
It was further stressed that these soldiers would not be sent to the front lines without intense training to prepare them for combat.
As of last month, some 9,000 Ukrainians have applied to join the ranks of the Offensive Guard.
A 21st Century Stalingrad
The Offensive Guard has already been playing a crucial role in the defense of Bakhmut, the site of the deadliest and fiercest fighting in the year-long war to date.
The defense of the city is being compared to that of Stalingrad, the hard-fought World War II battle that was the turning point of the conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Both sides engaged in a desperate battle for control of the city as much for its symbolic value as its strategic significance.
In the end, the German military captured upwards of 90 percent of the city but it was encircled and then destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.
Last month, to mark its 80th anniversary Russian President Vladimir Putin compared the battle and the Soviet victory to that of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The area outside Bahkmut has also been compared to the trench lines of the Western Front of the First World War, and with the same outcomes. Intense charges across the open ground by waves of men has resulted in little gains and much carnage.
It is hard to imagine that such fighting is occurring again in Europe in the 21st century.
Note: As the video is quite graphic we have decided not to embed it so as to not upset our audience. You can watch it on Twitter here.
Author Experience and Expertise:
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
