Ukraine’s Drones Hit So Many Russian Excavators That The Kremlin Got Desperate—And Deployed Very Weird Air-Defenses by daxe
appeared online depicting Russian technicians fitting 80-year-old naval guns to 70-year-old armored tractors, we finally have some idea what the Russians are doing with the bizarre, geriatric gun-trucks.
A photo that the independent Conflict Intelligence Team spotted on Telegram seems to show a pair of the MT-LB tractors with their 2M-3 turrets guarding a civilian excavator apparently digging defensive trenches somewhere in Russian-occupied Ukraine. It appears the MT-LB-2M-3s are rear-area air-defenses for civilian contractors. “This is probably due to the cases observed in the previous months when drones used to fly by and drop grenades on workers digging trenches, including in the Belgorod and Bryansk regions,” CITCIT’s analysts might be on to something. For months now, Ukrainian artillery gunners and drone-operators deliberately have targeted military and civilian excavators preparing fortifications along the 600-mile front line stretching from Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine east to the Donbas region and north to the vicinity of Belgorod. Anticipating a Ukrainian counteroffensive, the Russians for months have been digging in: laying mines, stringing up razor wire, digging trenches, piling up berms and sprinkling concrete “dragon’s teeth” tank-obstacles. The idea is to slow attacking Ukrainian forces just long enough for Russian reinforcements to deploy to an attack site. The Ukrainians anticipated that the Russians would anticipate their counteroffensive. It’s not for no reason that Kyiv has solicited from its foreign allies sizeable donations of specialized engineering vehicles. Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries have given to Ukraine scores of armored mine-clearing vehicles, engineering vehicles and bridgelayers. Working together, these vehicles can clear minefields, fill trenches, dig out berms and shove aside dragon’s teeth—a combined effort called “breaching.” Ukraine even has received from FinlandEven with Ukraine’s extensive preparation for eventual breaches, these remain extremely risky operations. Engineers have to work fast and while under fire. If a breach is slow or fails, an attack could stall out right as the defenders’ reinforcements arrive.in advanceThe analysts at Oryx, a collective that tallies wartime equipment losses, have identified 16 military excavators that the Ukrainians have destroyed, damaged or captured. Oryx doesn’t count civilian equipment losses, but
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