From our special envoy in Ukraine – A year after the failure of its full-scale invasion, Moscow has assembled 320,000 troops in the eastern Donbass region to sink the Ukrainian defense. While awaiting delivery of new Western weapons, kyiv’s forces are barely holding their lines with their outdated equipment. This is a report from France 24.
To the rhythm of artillery fire and with the help of construction machinery, a Ukrainian unit digs new trenches a few kilometers from the eastern city of Bakhmut. Moscow’s forces have progressively gained ground thanks to near-suicidal frontal attacks, worthy of World War I, carried out by well-equipped Wagner Group mercenaries. While the Russian troops close in on Bakhmut, despite being surrounded, the Ukrainian forces add new lines of defense to be able to deploy.
“This line is fortified in case Bakhmut falls,” a soldier named Igor explains to France 24, from the top of a hill. Ukraine’s goal: to ensure that the fall of this city does not become an advance for Russian forces.
“We are ready to pay the price for winning,” Igor says, referring to the large number of Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat, “but now victory is in the hands of our allies, who must give us better weapons.”
We have heard almost every soldier say that mantra during our passage through the sensitive areas of the front line in the Donbass region. And the call for additional Western weapons is becoming more urgent as Russia advances.
After spending time in the war of attrition by sending poorly trained prisoners to the front, like Bakhmut, Russia seems to have changed tack. In areas like Kreminna or Vuhledar, Ukraine now faces assaults from professional mechanized units.
With Western armored vehicles only scheduled to arrive in late spring or summer, kyiv’s forces have no choice but to defend themselves with their Soviet-era materiel.
There are several aging T-64, T-72 and T-80 tanks scattered in a pine forest, about twenty kilometers from the Russian lines. On its armor, the number that appears next to the letter “T” gives an approximate idea of the date on which the first models began to operate. The team members we met weren’t even born at that time.
“We don’t have enough armored vehicles to push back the Russians”
Once the soldiers receive the coordinates of their target, the tanks move in, in pairs, to fire on the enemy. They then move away from the front line to return to their starting position or to another location.
“Right now it’s very difficult because the enemy is pressing and we don’t have enough armored vehicles to push them back,” a soldier from the Ukrainian 25th tank brigade, nicknamed ‘Volunteer’, told France 24.
“Our most urgent problem is the ammunition shortage,” adds a senior officer, also called Igor. “In practice this means we have to take more risks because we have to get closer to the enemy to make sure we don’t waste missiles.”
The tank company commander insists that the delivery of Western armor would make a big difference on the battlefield.
To prove it, he invites us to get on his T-80. Once positioned at the narrow firing point, we understand how reliant the team is on technology, even for something as basic as visibility.
The T-80’s optical system is terribly outdated, with separate scopes for daytime identification and thermal imaging, and it doesn’t allow for easy switching between the two. On modern western tanks, the shooter has access to both images on the same screen. A fundamental detail, because even in broad daylight thermal images are very useful to distinguish targets, especially in the forest and in the city.
“And the missiles are stored just below where you are sitting,” Igor points out, with a small smile. On these vehicles, an attack or fire could cause an explosion at the bottom of the seat, which would launch the tank’s turret several meters away. This phenomenon sometimes called ‘flying turret’ is the worst nightmare of the teams operating these Soviet tanks.
Western tanks have the ability to engage in combat from a greater distance and can more easily cooperate on the battlefield with other infantry and artillery units, confirms Alexandre Vautravers, editor-in-chief of the Swiss Military Review and former deputy commander of an armored brigade.
“Tanks in Ukraine are now used as mobile artillery. Very few tanks have been destroyed with other tanks in this conflict. Western tanks and armored vehicles can give Ukrainian forces an advantage, allowing them to move and fire at the same time. But for that two or three weeks of intensive training would be necessary”, explains the military expert.
Regardless, Western tanks are unlikely to be the silver bullet that will push Russian forces back outside Igor’s front line. The company commander considers anti-tank mines to be one of the biggest threats in this area. A danger against which modern armored vehicles are not protected.
“Even with Western tanks it would be difficult to break the Russian lines in the Donbass, because the front has been fortified for almost ten years”, analyzes Alexandre Vautravers. In addition to the concentration of artillery and anti-tank missiles, in the defensive lines of this area there are deep ditches, concrete obstacles and mined terrain.
Operations five meters above the ground
But in Mikhail’s case, the concern isn’t the minefields. This 39-year-old pilot from the 12th Military Aviation Brigade drives an MI-24 ‘Hind’ attack helicopter. Five models of his unit, which also has MI-8 transport helicopters, are stationed in open ground on the eastern front. Maintenance workers are busy lubricating the holes in the rocket pods, while others check the alignment of the helicopter blades. They must be ready to take off at any moment if their commanders send them the coordinates of a target.
“Everyone has a role in fighting the Russians. When the infantry can’t move, we call in the helicopters. (…) Our sorties can last up to an hour and we destroy our targets in 90% of the cases, but it is very dangerous,” Mikhail explained to France 24.
The Donbass front is heavily fortified by air defenses and manpads (portable surface-to-air missiles). The unit’s pilots explain that the higher they fly, the more chance they have of being detected by enemy surface-to-air missiles.
“According to the ‘Hind’ specifications manual we must not fly less than twenty meters. But portable radars can detect us if we go higher than ten meters. That’s why I usually fly just five meters above the ground,” explains Mikhail.
Like other Ukrainian soldiers, the pilots are hoping that better-quality Western weapons will help counter Russia’s digital superiority. But they are also well aware that the promised armored vehicles will arrive in sufficient numbers on the Ukrainian battlefield only several months from now. Then it will be too late for them to help push back Russia’s winter offensive.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian forces use what they call ‘trophies’: Russian armored vehicles, seized after being abandoned by their teams. In a secret location on the outskirts of Kharkiv, we went to a discreet military workshop where mechanics work tirelessly to repair them.
A BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle, whose tracks are broken, rusts in a corner. Serves as a replacement for loose parts. The mechanics tell us that it has already helped to breathe new life into two similar models. There are several Russian tanks accumulated in a small courtyard. On its armor you can still see the letter ‘Z’.
Since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022, Russia has lost 500 tanks to Ukraine, ironically becoming the first international supplier of armored tanks to its enemy. But for Ukrainian soldiers, there is no doubt that only the future arsenal of weapons sent by the West will make it possible to wrest the occupied territories from Moscow’s forces.
*Article adapted from its original in French
