In an Epic Battle of Tanks, Russia Was Routed, Repeating Earlier Mistakes
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... Russia pulled reserves of tanks from Cold War-era storage, and Ukraine prodded Western governments to supply American Abrams and German Leopard II tanks.The sophisticated Western tanks are expected on the battlefield in the next several months. The...Russian armor turned...in its first wide-scale deployment was decimated. ...a stinging setback for the Russians.
...both sides sent tanks into the fray... the Russians thrusting forward in columns and the Ukrainians maneuvering defensively, firing from a distance or from hiding places as Russian columns came into their sights.
When it was over, not only had Russia failed to capture Vuhledar, but it also had made the same mistake that cost Moscow hundreds of tanks earlier in the war: advancing columns into ambushes.
Rooski anthropoid brain look like normal brain but no good. It have holes like the Switzerland cheese.
Blown up on mines, hit with artillery or obliterated by anti-tank missiles, the charred hulks of Russian armored vehicles now litter farm fields all about Vuhledar, according to Ukrainian military drone footage.
“We studied the roads they used, then hid and waited” to shoot in ambushes--Sgt. Artyom Knignitsky, Ukrainian tank mechanic in the battle.
Cheater, cheater, Ukraines eat punkins! We Rooski no can study with our Rooski brain. It Groundhogski Day every day for Rooski. Rooski sad.
In one indication that Russia is running short of experienced tank commanders, Ukrainian soldiers...captured a medic who had been reassigned to operate a tank.
...Russia had lost so many [tanks] to sustain armored assaults that they had changed tactics and resorted only to infantry attacks, Ukrainian commanders said.
In a detailed interview last week in an abandoned house near the front, Lt. Vladislav Bayak, the deputy commander of Ukraine’s 1st Mechanized Battalion of the 72nd brigade, described how Ukrainian soldiers were able to inflict such heavy losses in what commanders said was the biggest tank battle of the war so far.
Ambushes have been Ukraine’s signature tactic against Russian armored columns since the early days of the war. Working from a bunker in Vuhledar, Lieutenant Bayak spotted the first column of about 15 tanks and armored personnel carriers approaching on a video feed from a drone.
“We were ready,” he said. “We knew something like this would happen.”
Liar, Liar, Ukraines underpants in flames! THEY KNOW NOTHINK! Ukraines NEVER think Rooski be so stupit to do same ting all again over! HAHAHAHA Ukraines! Wiley Rooski brain smart you out!
They had prepared a kill zone farther along a dirt road that the tanks were rumbling down. The commander needed only to give an order over the radio — “To battle!” — Lieutenant Bayak said.
Anti-tank teams hiding in tree lines along the fields, and armed with American infrared-guided Javelins and Ukrainian laser-guided Stugna-P missiles, powered up their weapons. Farther away, artillery batteries were ready. The dirt road had been left free of mines, while the fields all about were seeded with them, so as to entice the Russians to advance while preventing tanks from turning around once the trap was sprung.
Hmmski *frowny face*
In ambushes, the crew hides the tank within range of a road that Russian tanks or armored personnel carriers might travel down. Then it waits quietly....
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In the last major engagement, a week ago, the order came in during the gray pre-dawn to prepare an ambush for a column of 16 Russian tanks and armored vehicles advancing toward the Ukrainian lines....
“We hid the tank in a tree line and waited for them,” Private Hrebenok said. “It’s always scary but we need to destroy them.”
In this instance, they stopped about three miles short of the ambush site, just out of range of return fire, and shot in coordination with a drone pilot who called in coordinates on a radio for targets they could not see directly.
The Russian column stalled on mines and, Private Hrebenok said, The Wanderer opened fire. The Russian tank crews had little chance once they were in the kill zone, he said.
“We destroyed a lot of Russian equipment,” he said. “What they did wrong was come to Ukraine.”
UKRAINE SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC!
