Ukraine has found a way to begin turning the tables on the Russian counteroffensive of 2024. Russia’s wasteful onslaught seems to be running out of steam because of Ukraine’s quantum leap in the use of mines and the ingenious ways they are laying and using these mines. They are using ground robots, flying drones and other stand off modes to repeatedly, sometimes within minutes, seed known Russian(and N Korean) armored attack vectors. In effect, the Ukrainians have built their own version of what the Russians did 18 months ago, a flexible but hardened line, eg, the “Biden Line”. The daily toll on Russian armor and personnel has been absolutely catastrophic.In early June 2023 came the much anticipated news that Ukraine had launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces occupying its territory with the goal of breaching the front lines primarily in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Having successfully pushed the Russian forces out of the city of Kherson and off the right bank of the wide Dnipro river, hopes were very high for Ukrainian success buoyed by the months long influx of modern western armor and legions of Ukrainian soldiers trained to use them to maximum effect. It was time to take it to the Russians who now looked to be on their back foot.
The jump off point in the Ukrainian armored spearhead attack on the Russian defenses came at Mala Tokmachka, a village near the town of Polohy in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The much hoped for Ukrainian drive to Robotyne, Tokmak, Melitopol and on to the Sea of Azov was finally on.
The battle of Mala Tokmachka in which Ukraine quickly lost several of its shiny new western armor …Bradleys, Leopards, Marders, etc to zeroed in Russian artillery fire and a seemingly impenetrable miles long and miles deep mine fields, proved to be a foretaste of what laid in store for the Ukrainians as they pushed on Southward. What had been envisioned as a rootin’ tootin’ rock and sock ‘em armored drive quickly became a slow and deadly slog. And even though General Zaluzhnyi and his Ukrainian legions pushed on as best as they could, their “march to the sea” foundered on the sandy fields and windrows of southern Zaporizhzhia, halted in brutal battles at places like Kopani, Verbove, Robotyne and ultimately just south of Novoprokopivka.
But whether it was known or unknown to the Ukrainian high command, the Russians used the long interregnum between their defeat in Kherson and the onset of the 2023 Ukrainian advance to heavily fortify their lines in southern Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and western Donetsk oblasts. Deep and long multi-layered lines of engineered above and below ground fortifications combined with zig zags of trenches fronted by miles deep and wide mine fields designed to create “kill zones”. And backed up by squadrons of the lethal Russian Ka-52 Alligator Attack helicopters. But those mine fields?. Man, did they take a toll on the attacking Ukrainians!! What has now gone down in history as the “Surovikin Line” withstood the Ukrainian counteroffensive and now Russia is slowly but surely clawing back much of the territory Ukraine reclaimed in the summer of 2023.
That was 18 months ago. And now it would appear that Ukraine not having had the same respite to build fortifications like the Russian “Surovikin Line” has in its own way found a way to begin turning the tables on the Russian counteroffensive of 2024. Many have of late wondered and have advanced theories as to why Russia’s brutally wasteful onslaught seems to be running out of steam. Principal among the reasons is Ukraine’s own quantum leap in the use of mines… of all varieties. And the ingenious ways they are laying and using these mines for maximum effect. They are using ground robots, flying drones and other stand off modes to repeatedly, sometimes within minutes, seed known Russian(and N Korean) armored attack vectors. In effect, the Ukrainians have built their own version of what the Russians did 18 months ago, a flexible but hardened line I call the “Biden Line”. The daily toll on Russian armor and personnel has been absolutely catastrophic. And continues to be so. So much so that it has forced the Russians to change and in some cases abandon their strategy of heavy mechanized assaults in favor of small team assaults. But that too has run head long into the flexibility of the “Biden Line”. These scaled down assaults are being picked off by Ukrainian FPV drones and roving mobile commando units.
It was a slow run up to the policy change on the controversial subject of mines as war fighting munitions but the Biden Administration’s decision regarding the use of various forms of American-made mines, including the recent one on anti-personnel mines, has proven pivotal in Ukraine’s ability to hold back the Russian onslaught along the entire battle trace. The Russians for their part have shown zero reticence in using mines:
Biden approves delivery of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine in light of Russian gains in east
"Russia is attacking Ukrainian lines in the east with waves of troops, regardless of the casualties that they're suffering," one of the officials said.
"So, the Ukrainians are obviously taking losses, and more towns and cities are at risk of falling. These mines were made specifically to combat exactly this."
Are the mines supplied to Ukraine along with those Ukraine produces on her own to “combat exactly this” (unrelenting Russian assaults) working? David Axe of Forbes Magazine shares a particular case in point which took place in the Kursk Salient:
In One Disastrous Assault In Kursk, 17 Russian Vehicles Hit Mines
The Ukrainian 12th Support Regiment has been busy.
In one assault, possibly a botched Nov. 7 attack by the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade, the Russians lost 17 vehicles “only due to detonation of mines,” Pavliuk wrote.
A single Ukrainian engineering unit—the 12th Support Regiment—is responsible for laying many of the mines. Apparently laying mines by hand and by drone, the Ukrainian sappers have done to the attacking Russians what Russian sappers did to attacking Ukrainians in southern Ukraine 17 months ago.
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ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE is giving Russia a taste of what it dealt out to Ukraine a little over 18 months ago in the sandy fields of southern Zaporizhzhia … a carpet of land mines fronting fortified defensive lines … a veritable “Biden Line”. And the Russians in turn are not liking it .. at all. But as they say “turnabout is fair play”.
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