After wasting some 15,000 combat vehicles in the first two years of its war against Ukraine, Russia is desperate.
The production of new cars, combined with the recovery of old cars in long-term storage, may not keep pace due to the monthly loss of more than six hundred tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.
That’s why, in the early months of the third year of the war, more Russian troops entered the war in trucks, open golf carts and, most recently, motorcycles.
The growing number of UN vehicles (or, at best, shoddy ones) on the Russian side of the front line does not mean that Russian forces cannot win battles against Ukrainian brigades short on ammunition and personnel.
But the transmission of the Russian cars underscores one of the most demanding situations for the Kremlin in a bitter war that Moscow officials say would end with a Russian victory in just a few days. “Although Russia remains a serious threat on the battlefield, [its] ability to upgrade lost armored vehicles is limited,” the Ukrainian research organization Frontelligence Insight explained.
Armies have been riding motorcycles for more than a century, in other words, for as long as motorcycles have existed. A fast, maneuverable, and affordable motorcycle provides an effective way for a courier or scout to get around the battlefield.
The challenge for Russian troops in 2024 is that, in the absence of specially designed armored vehicles as well as larger civilian cars, they are driving their unprotected motorcycles directly into Ukrainian positions, just as they began to do with their Desertcross 1000 roofless SUV. cars a few months ago. ” Motorcycles are replacing golf carts,” Ukrainian war correspondent Yuriy Butusov said.
Swapping larger vehicles for bicycles has taken a heavy toll on some Russian groups. On or around April 15, the Ukrainian army’s 92nd Assault Brigade defeated an attack by Russian troops on motorcycles on the outskirts of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
Three weeks later, around May 7, Ukraine’s 79th Air Assault Brigade destroyed 8 motorcycles in a Russian attack on Novomykhailivka, also in the east. The Russians “were wounded in the teeth,” the brigade wrote on social media.
Frontelligence Insight cited a “surprising” example: a Russian motorcycle with a rudimentary sidecar improvised to carry several soldiers. Motorcyclists abandoned their overloaded motorcycles in an attack on the eastern city of Bilohorivka last week.
Despite the losses, at least one Russian unit still endorses the use of motorcycles as attack vehicles. The Zarya Battalion of the Russian Army’s 123rd Motorized Rifle Brigade claimed that its motorcycles were faster and more accurate than a heavier, slower armored vehicle.
And the Russians are upgrading their war bikes, just as they’ve advanced their metal armored turtle tanks. To mitigate the risk of Ukrainian drones looking fast first-hand, which have been continuously observed chasing Russian troops on motorcycles, some Russian outfits have a woven cord mesh around their motorcycles.
Ukraine’s 79th Air Assault Brigade is not impressed. “Our attack drone operators did not appreciate creativity,” the brigade said on social media after its defeat in the Russian motorcycle attack on or shortly before May 7. “Every motorcyclist was fined for speeding well before the end of the line,” the squad said. He joked alongside a video posted showing crashed motorcycles and dead Russian motorcyclists.
Sources:
1. Oryx: https://www. oryxspioenkop. com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment. html
2. Yuri Butusov: https://t. me/ButusovPlus/9541
3. Frontelligence Overview: https://twitter. com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1786695144756101325
4. 79th Air Assault Brigade: https://t. me/odshbr79/188
5. Zarya Battalion: https://t. me/battalion_zarya/104
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