Ukrainian forces earlier this year were trained in trench warfare in the UK. That training might be fully displayed in a video shared on social media on Saturday.
In the nearly 90-second clip posted to Twitter by Rob Lee (@RALee85) of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Ukrainian soldiers from the 30th Mechanized Brigade could be seen holding off a group of counterattacking Russian troops.
Lee noted that he had cropped a minute from the video, which remains unedited on Facebook, as it showed the deaths of the entire team of Russians.
The trench system has been geo-confirmed near the village of Sakko i Vantsetti in the Bakhmut Raion (district).
The village had the distinction of being named after Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who killed an American paymaster during an armed robbery in Braintree, Massachusetts.
Both men were convicted of murder and executed in the electric chair in 1927, but Soviet propaganda celebrated them as “unjustly accused” proletarians and revolutionaries.
The village has been completely destroyed in recent fighting.
The 30th Mechanized Brigade in the Spotlight
The recent fighting near the city of Bakhmut involved Ukrainians of the 30th Independent Mechanized Brigade “Konstanty Ostrogski,” one of the Ukrainian Army units known for filming its exploits and sharing them on social media. In October last year, a video circulated of the unit dropping VOG-17 and F1 grenades on Russian positions near Bakhmut, while in December, some troops of the 30th Mechanized Brigade successfully captured main battle tanks including a T-90M and T-80U.
The modern unit is named to honor Ruthenian Prince and eventual Grand Hetman of Lithuania Konstanty Ostrogski. It was initially created by the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War as the 83rd Cavalry Division, and it notably took part in the fighting on the Ukrainian Front.
After the war, it was converted to the 11th Guards Mechanized Division and was among the Soviet forces that played a role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution. The unit later became the 30th Guards Tank Division as part of the Soviets’ 8th Tank Army.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the 30th Guards Tank Division was transferred to the Ukrainian Ground Forces. Soldiers from the unit served in peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Iraq, and Kosovo.
Redesignated the 30th Mechanized Brigade, it was one of the five brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the start of the War in Donbas after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. The unit has seen extensive fighting in the Donbas since 2014 and is considered a veteran fighting force.
In May 2022 it took part in the Battle of the Siverskyi Donets, which was considered one of the deadliest single engagements in the conflict to that point.
Since October of last year, the brigade has been among the Ukrainian units fighting in the Battle of Bakhmut.
Based on the recent video, its soldiers aren’t willing to give the invader another inch of territory.
As the video is graphic, we have decided not to embed it into this article. However, you can see it 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.
