“Accident” with a tank and infantry fighting vehicle in a crater: drones defeated a company of invaders with equipment in a few minutes
Date: 2024-02-05 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WAR
The Russian army is losing an unprecedented amount of equipment in Ukraine. Sometimes Ukrainians carry out operations to destroy dozens of pieces of equipment in a matter of minutes.
In the first 700 days of Russia's broader war against Ukraine, the Russians lost an average of 19 tanks, combat vehicles and other heavy weapons every day, Forbes reports. On Sunday, analyst Andrew Perpetua counted 54 units of Russian equipment destroyed in one day.
Every destroyed Russian tank or combat vehicle is the result of training, planning and risk on the part of the Ukrainian military. UAV operator Kriegsforscher detailed a clash in December that ended with Russian troops, likely from the 35th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade or a related unit, advancing a maximum of 350 meters to the outskirts of Avdeevka from Vodyane.
This advance cost them nine tanks, 12 combat vehicles, 23 killed and 46 wounded. Characteristic of this disastrous assault was one moment of head-on collision between two Russian tanks.
“Call 911, we have a tank accident,” Kriegsforscher sneered.
The Russian landing force consisted of new, old and even older equipment: T-62M tanks, built in the 1960s and modernized in the 80s and again in 2022; gas turbine T-80BV of the 80s; newly built T-72B3M; 60-year-old BMP-1; 40-year-old BMP-2; and MT-LB armored tractors from the 1960s or 70s. Also a very rare BAT-2 engineering vehicle.
The age of the equipment did not matter, since the Ukrainians attacked the assault group in the usual way: pursuing it with explosive-laden drones and artillery, killing the crews and forcing the survivors from their vehicles. Russian electronic warfare systems, if they existed, were unable to land the drones.
"It is very important to destroy the left armor. Otherwise, engineers may return to the battlefield and tow away damaged vehicles to repair them, as happened with one of the T-62s that the Ukrainians shot down that December day," Kriegsforscher explained.
One MT-LB exploded like fireworks after being hit by an artillery shell. A huge crater remained.
“After this, a funny story happened. A Russian BMP-2 was driving, and for some reason the driver did not see the crater - and you see what happened. The BMP overturned into the crater. They tried to evacuate the BMP, but they couldn’t go far,” said Kriegsforscher.
In the end, an entire Russian mechanized company was defeated. What was especially shocking was that the operation was inconspicuous. The Russians lost as much equipment in one operation as they usually lose in three days.
