Ukraine Inflicts "Vehicular Massacre" On Russians Attacking Illinsk

The Russians are attempting to trade men and equipment for land in Donbas and the Ukrainians are making them pay a high price. JL

David Axe reports in Forbes:

From the ruins of Vuhledar, the Russian 20th Motor Rifle Division—with perhaps 10,000 troops—is hammering at the Ukrainian 79th Air Assault Brigade. The paratroopers and their supporting drone units have knocked out potentially dozens of Russian vehicles—first, factory-fresh BMP-3s. And then, as the modern BMP-3s began to run out, older BMP-2s and MT-LBs. The vehicular massacre on the road toward Illinka has helped drive up Russian losses to record levels - a staggering 206 destroyed, damaged and abandoned Russian vehicles on Saturday.

Advancing north from the ruins of Vuhledar, the powerful Russian 20th Motor Rifle Division—with perhaps 10,000 troops—is hammering at the 2,000-person Ukrainian 79th Air Assault Brigade, counting on the division’s superior numbers to grind down the exhausted paratroopers.

 

The Russians’ goal: to drive the Ukrainian brigade from the village of Illinka, 20 miles west of Donetsk in the oblast of the same name. If Illinka and surrounding settlements fall, Russian troops could drive north—and surround the Ukrainian garrison in Karakhove, a key position for the Ukrainians’ defense of southern Donetsk Oblast.

“The situation is close to critical,” reported Kriegsforscher, a Ukrainian drone operator. The 79th Air Assault Brigade “is under [a] massive enemy push” that began around two weeks ago.

The paratroopers and their supporting drone units have knocked out potentially dozens of Russian vehicles—first, factory-fresh BMP-3s. And then, as the modern BMP-3s began to run out, older BMP-2s and MT-LBs.

The vehicular massacre on the road toward Illinka has helped drive up Russian losses to record levels. Analyst Andrew Perpetua tallied a staggering 206 destroyed, damaged and abandoned Russian vehicles on Saturday. He counted just 49 Ukrainian losses on the same day.

But the Kremlin has discovered a winning strategy at a winning time, and is clearly willing to trade vehicles and troops for territory.

The strategy is simple but effective, Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseyev explained. “The Russians continue to successfully use the ‘bag’ tactics, bypassing our positions on three sides and leaving a narrow ‘throat’ for retreat,” Aseyev wrote. “As a result, even in combat-ready units, encirclement panic often begins, which leads to the withdrawal of troops.”

 

It doesn’t help the Ukrainian war effort that its forces are stretched thin in the east while trying to maintain control of their 270-mile salient in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast. That salient, which Kyiv may hope to use as a bargaining chip in any future peace negotiations, is under increasing pressure not only from Russian troops, but also thousands of North Korean reinforcements.

The dozen or so Ukrainian battalions in Kursk, which include some of Kyiv’s best troops and vehicles, would be more useful in Donetsk, Kriegsforscher argued. “While we lose so much ground in [the] Donetsk area, I am asking myself: what I am doing in [the] Kursk area?”

“Since the first day of operation I was strongly against it,” Kriegsforscher wrote. “My opinion hasn’t changed.”

The defense ministry in Kyiv is scrambling to form new brigades in order to reinforce the fraying front line. But the best of these brigades is still in training. And there aren’t enough modern vehicles to equip them all.