Russian forces are more and more counting on mild and quick automobiles like ATVs and motorbikes to maneuver troops to the entrance strains, conduct reconnaissance of Ukrainian positions, and execute assaults.
By favoring these lighter automobiles, Russia is sacrificing the safety that its troops would take pleasure in in a extra closely armored trip, leaving them way more susceptible to Ukrainian assaults, new Western intelligence suggests.
Over the previous few months, Russia has “extremely doubtless” elevated its employment of sunshine automobiles as a option to transfer troops to the entrance strains and stage nighttime assaults on Ukrainian positions, Britain’s protection ministry wrote in a Monday intelligence replace.
Ukraine’s forces have been working quad bikes as early as April 2022, simply weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, to ambush Russian forces. Practically two years later, in February of this yr, Ukrainian troopers stated Russian quad bikes have been extra maneuverable than tracked automobiles and tougher to hit with artillery.
Picture by ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
“It’s doubtless that Russian forces have more and more resorted to using lighter, sooner automobiles to conduct reconnaissance of Ukrainian defensive positions, to permit for subsequent engagement utilizing artillery, first-person view (FPV) or one-way assault OWA drones in an effort to persistently degrade Ukrainian forces,” Britain’s protection ministry stated.
“Nevertheless, in sacrificing armor and firepower for elevated mobility, mild automobiles are way more susceptible than their armored counterparts to an array of weapon methods,” the ministry added, noting that “Ukrainian FPV drones have already demonstrated their skill to successfully goal such mild automobiles.”
Russia has reportedly bought 1000’s of Chinese language Desertcross 1000-3 ATVs, per the intelligence replace. Rob Lee, a senior fellow on the International Coverage Analysis Institute, stated final month that certainly one of these automobiles in service with Russia’s 177th Naval Infantry Regiment had been outfitted with a counter-drone display screen.
This improvised anti-drone armor — cage-like netting that is typically known as a “cope cage” — has been featured prominently on Russian and Ukrainian armored automobiles, together with tanks. It’s primarily a last-ditch added layer of safety to defend towards threats like drones, artillery, and a few missiles.
Whereas Russia’s lighter automobiles are extra susceptible to Ukrainian assaults than its heavy armor, Moscow has nonetheless misplaced scores of tanks and armored automobiles on the battlefield, together with to Kyiv’s exploding FPV drones. These methods are in no way invincible, even when they’re outfitted with added layers of safety.
The shift in transportation additionally seems to have modified the tempo of Russian assaults, one Ukrainian commander stated.
Picture by Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs
A number of weeks in the past, Russian infantry troopers have been launching assaults each few hours alongside a set of armored automobiles, Col. Pavlo Fedosenko, the commander of Ukraine’s 92nd assault brigade, advised the Economist in a latest interview.
However now, Moscow’s troops use quad bikes and bikes to assault in small teams each few days as they search for weak spots in Kyiv’s defensive strains.
Russia hasn’t utterly turned its again on its armored automobiles, although. Final week, as an example, Moscow launched a brand new assault in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv area and tried utilizing armored automobiles to interrupt via defensive strains. Kyiv stated its forces repelled the preliminary assault, however intense preventing continued via the weekend.
“Defensive battles are ongoing, fierce battles — on a big a part of our border space,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Sunday, addressing the scenario in Kharkiv. He added that “there are villages which have truly turned from a grey zone right into a fight zone — and the occupier is making an attempt to realize a foothold in a few of them, or just use a few of them for additional development.”
