3 Ukrainians, 1 Bradley At Pokrovsk Defeat Russian Force 5 Times Bigger

Russian troops continue to underperform relative to the much smaller and less well equipped Ukrainians.

Which explains their failure to achieve the goals that the Kremlin keeps setting for them - and they keep missing. JL

David Axe reports in Forbes:

In a furious infantry action along the approaches to Pokrovsk on Monday, a team of 425th Assault Battalion troopers, backed up by mortars and drones—and a single Bradley—defeated a Russian force five times its size. Ukrainian mortar crews opened fire. Drone operators joined in the bombardment. The Russian assault group “ceased to exist.” The skirmish ended with engineers blowing up a bridge the two Russian assault groups had used to approach Pokrovsk. It was a classic combined-arms engagement for the Ukrainians—a coordinated mix of infantry and mechanized actions supported by reconnaissance, artillery, aerial fires and engineers.

The 425th Assault Battalion is one of just six Ukrainian battalions to receive American-made M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles—31 of them if the battalion adheres to the standard Ukrainian force structure.

 

The 400-person battalion is putting the 33-ton, 10-person IFVs to good use as part of the Ukrainians’ spirited defense of Pokrovsk, the city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast that is the locus of Russia’s yearlong offensive in the east.

In a furious infantry action somewhere along the approaches to Pokrovsk on or shortly before Monday, a team of 425th Assault Battalion troopers, backed up by mortars and drones—and a single fast-reacting Bradley—defeated a Russian force five times its size.

The two-part firefight began when three 425th Assault Battalion soldiers, who’d apparently been dropped off by an M-2 performing its primary role as a “battle taxi,” spotted three Russian soldiers approaching along a road.

The Ukrainians saw the Russians. The Russians didn’t see the Ukrainians. “These three do not suspect anything,” a 425th Assault Battalion soldier narrated in a video helpfully translated by the Estonian analyst WarTranslated.

The Ukrainians “came out and controlled the situation with a grenade,” the narrator quipped. A few well-aimed rifle rounds ended the ambush. Two Russians lay dead. A third “decided he’d had enough” and crawled toward the Ukrainians to surrender.

That’s when an even, three-on-three fight turned lopsided for the 425th Assault Battalion. A dozen more Russians marched down the same road, surveilled the entire time by a Ukrainian drone.

Nearby Ukrainian mortar crews opened fire. Drone operators joined in the bombardment. The Russian assault group “ceased to exist,” according to the narrator.

Just to be sure, an M-2—perhaps the same one that may have dropped off the initial three Ukrainian troopers—arrived on the scene “and added more fire.” Blasting away with its fast-firing 25-millimeter autocannon, the Bradley turned the kill zone into an abattoir.

There were no additional Russian prisoners.

The skirmish ended with engineers blowing up a bridge the two Russian assault groups had used to approach Pokrovsk. Finally, the 425th Assault Battalion dropped off a fresh group of infantry—and fetched the three soldiers who’d just beat 15 Russians.

It was a classic combined-arms engagement for the Ukrainians—a coordinated mix of infantry and mechanized actions supported by reconnaissance, artillery, aerial fires and engineers.

 

And it underscored the extreme value of the 300 or so M-2s the United States has donated to Ukraine, most of which remain in action despite participating in almost all of the hardest battles in Ukraine and western Russia since early 2023.

If there’s anything for the Ukrainians to lament, it’s that they may not get any more Bradleys. The incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has signaled that, at best, it will reduce U.S. aid to Ukraine. At worst, it may end it.

In the latter case, those 300 M-2s will have to suffice—potentially for the duration of the war.