Andrew E. Kramer has a report in The NY Times today:
A three-week fight in the town of Vuhledar in southern Ukraine produced what Ukrainian officials say was the biggest tank battle of the war so far, and a stinging setback for the Russians.
It’s a fascinating read on how Ukrainian forces have been using tactics that capitalize on the Russian assaults that advance right into prepared traps. It highlights how the ability to use drones to provide information on troop movements and communications that get targeting info to those in position to use it are making a difference.
KURAKHOVE, Ukraine — Before driving into battle in their mud-spattered war machine, a T-64 tank, the three-man Ukrainian crew performs a ritual.
The commander, Pvt. Dmytro Hrebenok, recites the Lord’s Prayer. Then, the men walk around the tank, patting its chunky green armor.
“We say, ‘Please, don’t let us down in battle,’” said Sgt. Artyom Knignitsky, the mechanic. “‘Bring us in and bring us out.’”
Their respect for their tank is understandable. Perhaps no weapon symbolizes the ferocious violence of war more than the main battle tank. Tanks have loomed over the conflict in Ukraine in recent months — militarily and diplomatically — as both sides prepared for offensives. Russia pulled reserves of tanks from Cold War-era storage, and Ukraine prodded Western governments to supply American Abrams and German Leopard II tanks.
Everyone is waiting to see what will happen when modern tanks from the West show up on the battle field — but the tank battles so far are already giving an idea of what tank warfare could look like: hide and seek from drones, being prepared to move out quickly, using mines to limit maneuvers, and setting up ambushes.
...A three-week battle on a plain near the coal-mining town of Vuhledar in southern Ukraine produced what Ukrainian officials say was the biggest tank battle of the war so far, and a stinging setback for the Russians.
In the extended battle, both sides sent tanks into the fray, rumbling over dirt roads and maneuvering around tree lines, with 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.
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. Ukraine’s military said Russia had lost at least 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers in the battle. That figure could not be independently verified. Ukraine does not disclose how many weapons it loses.
One of the things the article mentions is the Russian history of winning great tank battles against Germany in World War II. To put it mildly, they are not happy that history is not repeating itself.
There’s a deadly calculus at work. Russia is betting it can keep throwing expendable forces against Ukraine long enough to overwhelm Ukraine’s ability to keep troops in the field to oppose them, train new recruits to replace casualties, and do it before new weapons systems arrive, while wreaking havoc on the rest of the the country.
Not given in the report are any numbers on how long a combat team in a tank — on either side — can expect to keep fighting before being destroyed. The contest is to see who decides the price is too high first. Leopard IIs and Abrams may tilt those numbers, but it’s going to be a tough wait.