None Of Russia's 4 Pokrovsk Armor Assaults Last Week Even Reached the Front

Russia launched four major armored assaults against Ukrainian positions in the Pokrovsk sector last week. Not only did all of them fail - spectacularly - but none of them even managed to reach the front line jumping off point due to Ukrainian drones, mines and artillery. 

The serial battlefield failures are a curious way to convince Presidents Trump and Xi of Putin's 'inevitable' victory, especially since reports of his forces actually running out of soldiers are now common in western media. The modern Russian military's humiliation at the hands of a smaller, weaker foe, will be studied for generations. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

Since last week, there have been four major Russian mech assaults on Pokrovsk. All failed. The fourth, on Thursday, failed hardest as 22 Russian tanks and other armored fighting vehicles from the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade tried to reach Shakhove. The Russians never saw Shakhove. Ukrainian drones spotted the armor outside the Russian base in Malynivka on Thursday morning. It’s five miles from Malynivka to Shakhove (but) there are so many old uncrossable Ukrainian trenches in the area that Russian vehicles must travel one main road north to get within shooting distance of Shakhove. The Azov Corps hit 13 vehicles, destroying nine of them and sending the rest scurrying back to their dugouts. “They even didn’t reach the front line.”

The five marine regiments and brigades the Kremlin rushed to the front line near the fortress city of Pokrovsk this summer have finally begun deploying their armored vehicles.  Their target: Shakhove, just northeast of Pokrovsk. The village anchors Ukrainian position east of a chaotic 25-square-mile salient Russian motor rifle troops carved out of Ukrainian lines in August. Take Shakhove, and the Russians can expand the salient. Expand the salient, and they can cut across the supply lines threading south into Pokrovsk.

 

Since last week, there have been no fewer than four major Russian mech assaults. All failed. The fourth, on Thursday, failed hardest as 22 Russian tanks and other armored fighting vehicles from the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade, split into at least two columns, tried to reach Shakhove. The village anchors Ukrainian defenses on the southeastern corner of a chaotic 25-square-mile salient stretching north toward Dobropillia, which sits astride a main supply line threading south into Pokrovsk. The Russians never saw Shakhove. Ukrainian drones spotted the armor column just outside the Russian base in Malynivka on Thursday morning. It’s five miles from Malynivka to Shakhove as the crow flies. “They even didn’t reach the front line,” There are two problems. One: there are so many old uncrossable Ukrainian trenches in the area Russia controls south of Shakhove that Russian vehicles must travel one main road winding north from the Russian base in Malynivka in order to get within shooting distance of Shakhove. The Ukrainians know this. They patrol the road with drones, mine it and zero their artillery on it. It’s not for no reason that all four large mechanized assaults the Russians have attempted since early October have failed—spectacularly.  Russian marines tried to captured the village of Shakhove, on Thursday—and failed, dramatically. The attack, involving 22 armored vehicles from the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade, hinted at new tactics that, with better timing and a little luck, could help the Russians break through around Pokrovsk as their wider war on Ukraine grinds into its 44th month. The Russians made several surprising moves as they prepared two separate columns with T-80BVM tanks and BTR-82A wheeled infantry fighting vehicles laden with infantry. In the days leading up to the Thursday morning assault, the Russian marines set up observation posts around their base in the village of Malynivka, 9 km south of Shakhove.

 

The goal, according to the Ukrainian 1st Azov Corps, was to detect and shoot down Ukraine's night-flying heavy bomber drones, preventing them from dropping mines on the likeliest assault routes between Malynivka and Shakhove. At the same time, the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade—one of five marine brigades and regiments the Kremlin rushed to Donetsk Oblast this summer to bolster the Center Grouping of Forces' faltering effort to capture Pokrovsk and clear a path toward the twin cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk—tried to hide its T-80s and BTR-82s. Both types are still in production at factories in Russia. But production of new vehicles isn't keeping up with vehicle losses. Every tank and fighting vehicle is precious. Especially as the winter mud deepens and strictly footborne assaults become impractical all along the 1,100-km front line. Normally, a Russian assault column would assemble in a base such as Malynivka and roll out the morning of a planned attack, ideally under the cover of fog or an overcast sky. But that predictable deployment pattern risks drawing heavy Ukrainian fire. To mitigate the risk, the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade sent some of its vehicles out into the tree lines around Malynivka on Wednesday, 15 October, the day before the assault.

 

"The maneuver was unsuccessful," the 1st Avoz Corps reported. "Two units of armored vehicles were detected by reconnaissance and destroyed by artillery and [first-person-view] drones of the Unmanned Systems Forces before they even tried to hide in the forest." Meanwhile, enough of Ukraine's heavy bomber drones got past the Russian observation posts to drop their mines along the roads between Malynivka and Shakhove. All the creative measures amounted to nothing when the run rose on Thursday, and the 22 vehicles rolled out. "Thanks to the advanced engineering equipment of the positions, effective mining and coordinated actions of the units of the defense forces of Ukraine—primarily artillery crews of the brigades of the armed forces and the national guard of Ukraine, as well as the crews of the Unmanned Systems Forces—the enemy attack was thwarted," the 1st Azov Corps boasted. A map of the situation around Pokrovsk The corps hit 13 vehicles, destroying nine of them and sending the rest scurrying back to their dugouts.