Outgunned Ukrainian Troops Found Themselves Surrounded By A Russian Division. They Barely Escaped—By Sneaking Along Ravines.

The coming battle for Huliapole is off to bad start for the Ukrainians.

142nd Mechanized Brigade troops in training. 142nd Mechanized Brigade photo

The battle for Pokrovsk is ending. The battle for Huliapole is just beginning. And it’s off to a rocky start for the outnumbered, outgunned Ukrainian forces defending this southern logistical hub from a powerful Russian force led by the 127th Motor Rifle Division.

Earlier this month, two under-strength Ukrainian battalions—one each from the 102nd Territorial Brigade and the 142nd Mechanized Brigade—suddenly found themselves behind the forward edge of Russian troops marching west toward Huliapole.

Surrounded and cut off near the village of Uspeniwka, on the western bank of the Yanichur River a few miles north of Huliapole, the hundreds of Ukrainian troops depended entirely on drones for their meager resupply, according to observer Thorkill.

“Families of the soldiers there report that fuel for the generators is already running out, and the situation is dire,” Thorkill reported on Nov. 10.