Drone offensive decimates Soviet-era Russian armour in Kharkiv battle
September 26 in the Kharkiv region saw one of Ukraine's largest battles in recent weeks. According to available information and recordings, the Russians engaged about 50 various types of vehicles in the assault, yet they suffered a complete defeat.
The recording of the failed Russian assault was published by, among others, Yuri Fedorenko, commander of the Achilles Battalion from the 92nd Independent Assault Brigade. This is one of the Ukrainian brigades operating in the Kupiansk direction.
In this case, drones (both kamikaze and reusable drones dropping ammunition) were primarily used to repel the Russian attack. The operators of these drones very effectively struck Russian trucks, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), and BTR and MT-LB armoured personnel carriers (APCs).
Yuri Fedorenko reported that 14 Russian vehicles were completely destroyed. Another 26 units of the invaders' equipment were damaged. The list of Russian losses includes ATVs (all-terrain vehicles), Ural and UAZ trucks, as well as heavy armoured equipment like tanks, BMP infantry fighting vehicles, and BTR and MT-LB armoured personnel carriers.
The Defence Romania portal highlighted that such large-scale attacks are now very rare in the war in Ukraine, mainly due to the high transparency of the battlefield and the presence of a large number of anti-tank forces, artillery, and drones. Most individual attacks are conducted using less equipment. In this case, the Russians primarily relied on a set of older, Soviet-era weapons.
Soviet-era equipment decimated by Ukrainians
For example, the MT-LB is an amphibious armoured personnel carrier from the 1960s. It is powered by a 240 hp engine and can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h on land and about 5 km/h in water.
The BMP is a series of Soviet tracked infantry fighting vehicles that include the BMP-1, BMP-2, and BMP-3 models, the first of which began production in 1966. BMP-2s are over 40 years old, and the newest BMP-3s were produced from the 1980s.
The BMP-3 weighs about 19,000 kg and features solid armament, including a low-pressure 100 mm gun, a 30 mm gun, and a machine gun. On the other hand, the armour in BMP-3 also does not offer much durability. In older variants, the crews are practically defenceless.
