When the Russian tanks and armored vehicles attacked, they fell into a Ukrainian ambush and were locked on both ends, in a dead end situation.
Earlier this month, the 2nd Battalion of the 30th Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine posted a video of its forces ambushing a column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles near the village of Sinkovka, about 6 km northeast of the city of Kupyansk. This is one of the hot spots on the Ukrainian battlefield, where Russia is concentrating its forces to attack.
Video captured by a reconnaissance drone shows a convoy of Russian armored vehicles moving through a minefield, surrounded by the remains of several previously destroyed combat vehicles.
Leading the Russian attack was a tank with a mine plow mounted on its front, creating a safe opening for the formation behind. The other tanks and armored vehicles maintained a safe distance and followed the tracks of the mine plow in front.
But when the entire convoy entered the ambush, the leading vehicle was suddenly attacked by a Ukrainian anti-tank missile and exploded violently. One crew member managed to escape, crawled on the ground to find a place to hide, but was then shot and lay motionless.
Blocked, three vehicles in the convoy tried to retreat back the same way, but the Ukrainian UAV dropped explosives on the armored vehicle at the end of the convoy, disabling it. This "taillock" tactic left the entire convoy with no way to retreat. Some Russian infantrymen jumped out of the armored vehicle and ran into a nearby grove of trees to hide.
To escape the entrapment, the remaining two vehicles had to risk moving to the sides, but each ran into a mine and exploded. Ukrainian forces then shelled the Russian soldiers in the trees with cluster munitions. It is unclear how many casualties the Russian forces suffered in the ambush.
Ukraine attacks Russian forces near Sinkovka village in video posted on January 4, Video: 2nd Battalion, 30th Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine
This is considered an ambush that clearly demonstrates the "block the front, block the tail" tactic that Ukraine is applying to stop Russia's advance. According to the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Battalion, Russian tank and armored columns often suffer such losses due to their multi-layered defense line.
"We were well prepared to deal with the enemy," the battalion commander said, adding that he had monitored the ambush from a nearby bunker.
The Russian military has recently mobilized tens of thousands of troops to capture Kupyansk, a strategic transport city that connects the railway and road networks in Kharkiv province. However, Russian forces have so far made little progress in their efforts to attack the village of Sinkovka on the outskirts of the city.
Russia’s difficulties on this front are a clear demonstration of the current “frozen” state on the Ukrainian battlefield, when both sides are facing a situation of “easy to defend, hard to attack”. After failing in a large-scale counter-offensive campaign last June, Ukrainian forces switched to an “active defense” strategy to protect the territories that the country regained control of during the campaign.
After months of consolidating defense lines and accumulating forces, the Russian army switched from defense to offense, hoping to easily penetrate the enemy's defense lines thanks to its superior advantage in equipment, especially artillery shells, in the context of Ukraine's serious shortage of this type of shell due to the decrease in aid from the West.
However, the Russian military appears to be facing the same difficulties that have held back Ukrainian forces in their counteroffensive.
One of them is the densely planted minefields, which can neutralize the role of tanks and armored vehicles and slow down the advance of the attacking force. The popularity of reconnaissance UAVs on the front line makes it easy for both sides to observe the enemy's "every move, every move", but the defending force is the one with the advantage, because the attacking side can no longer launch surprise attacks.
Ukrainian T-72 tanks near the village of Rabotino in Zaporizhzhia province on January 27. Photo: AFP
Heavy combat vehicles are also easy prey for suicide UAVs, a cheap weapon capable of destroying tanks and armored vehicles with a single hit to a vulnerable location. A Ukrainian commander at the Kupyansk front said Russia would have difficulty making progress until it found a solution to deal with suicide UAVs.
Another difficulty facing Russian forces is the level of sophistication of the troops participating in the attacks. According to observers, Moscow has had to send a large number of poorly trained and inexperienced soldiers to Ukraine to compensate for the loss of forces, affecting the effectiveness of combat operations on the front line.
This was clearly reflected in the ambush by the 2nd Battalion near the village of Sinkovka. According to open source intelligence analyst Emil Kastehelmi, before sending in tanks, Russia should have launched a preemptive artillery barrage in the area to disrupt the enemy’s defenses, but they did not.
"This is almost a complete tactical failure," Kastehelmi said, adding that the Ukrainian army had made similar mistakes many times when conducting counterattacks.
Despite overwhelming the enemy in terms of equipment, the Russian forces are also lacking certain types of military equipment, including gun barrels. Military expert David Axe of Forbes said that Moscow has recently had to remove the barrels of some older guns to make temporary replacements for newer models, as many of their guns have suffered barrel damage from overfiring.
Due to difficulties in penetrating the Ukrainian defense line, the Russian army is said to be applying a strategy of "attrition war", launching many small-scale attacks to gradually wear down the enemy's forces until the defense line collapses, instead of launching large-scale campaigns with many risks.
Moscow will have the upper hand in this war thanks to the superior production capacity of its domestic defense industry, which is now "in gear" after nearly two years of conflict.
Meanwhile, Western military aid to Ukraine has recently decreased sharply, and the country's arms industry is currently not capable of meeting the needs of the war. Ukraine is also having difficulty compensating for the loss of manpower on the battlefield, as many of its citizens are feeling frustrated and tired due to the prolonged conflict and no longer want to join the army.
Russia has a larger population than Ukraine, so it will have an advantage in recruiting troops. Vadym Skibitskyi, an official of the Main Directorate of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR), said on January 15 that Moscow is currently recruiting about 30,000 soldiers a month, enough to compensate for the loss of manpower on the battlefield.
Observers say that after initial difficulties due to Ukraine's "blocking the front, blocking the tail" ambushes, Russian forces will likely find a way to overcome enemy defenses, at least in the Donbass region, if the West does not provide more military aid to Kiev.
"If Russia can maintain its artillery superiority until the end of the year, it will be able to capture the rest of Donbass," said Michael Clarke, former director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
Location of Kupyansk and surrounding areas. Graphics: RYV
Pham Giang (According to WSJ, Guardian, Forbes )
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