Traveling An Obvious Route, A Russian Company Rolled Into An Ambush

As Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its 38th month, and losses deepen on both sides, it’s increasingly rare for Russian regiments to muster a full assault group with at least a dozen armored vehicles and scores of infantry.

However, Russian commanders clearly have their sights set on the settlements west of Russian-occupied Andriivka and north of the ruins of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainians have been counterattacking, and advancing, around Toretsk. Russian assaults in this area, if successful, could spoil the counterattacks.

But the assault group that rolled out on or before Thursday was apparently missing some key equipment. Yes, it had a full consignment of vanishingly rare armored vehicles. No, it seemingly didn’t have enough mine-clearing gear: rollers, plows and explosive line charges.

That doomed the assault group.

“Ukraine has surpassed Afghanistan and Syria to become the most heavily mined country on Earth,” Richard Garcia and Colin Colley wrote in a November article for a U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command newsletter.

Russian mines were the main reason why Ukraine’s summer 2023 counteroffensive ultimately stalled. Ukrainian mines are a main reason why subsequent Russian offensives have made only incremental progress, and at incredible cost.

“Ukrainian forces … seek to anticipate the routes to be used for attacks each day and lay anti-personnel and anti-tank mines and prepare fires to engage Russian troops before they engage [Ukrainian] positions,” Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds wrote in a recent study for the Royal United Services Institute in London.

A Russian assault group with enough mine-clearing support, and time to use it, might attack right through a possible Ukrainian minefield. An assault group without mine-clearing support might have no choice but to anticipate where the Ukrainians anticipated a Russian assault groups might travel—and take a different route.

Lack of support

According to Militarnyi, that’s what happened outside Andriivka. “Presumably, the invaders did not have enough vehicles with minesweepers and could not move through the mined fields, so they moved as a group along one asphalt road.”

Tightly packed and moving predictably, the assault group was an easy target for Ukrainian drones and cluster shells. The lead vehicle was hit and immobilized, blocking the vehicles behind it. Ukrainian drones watched infantry pile out of the trapped vehicles and run for their lives.

In all, the assault group has around two platoons of troops and vehicles, according to the Ukrainian general staff in Kyiv. At least one platoon was destroyed.

As the dust and smoke cleared, Ukrainian reconnaissance tallied seven destroyed vehicles and five damaged ones plus 18 dead Russians and seven wounded. Confirmed Russian casualties could increase. “The tally of the enemy’s losses continues!” the general staff reported.