Ukraine Straps Old Armored Vehicle With Explosives, Drives It Straight Into Russian Lines
Ukrainian forces converted a decades-old armored vehicle into a remote-controlled rolling bomb and sent it into Russian positions, as Kyiv increasingly turns Russia's own battlefield tactics against its invaders.
A Ukrainian battalion commander said his troops packed an old BTR armored personnel carrier with explosives and drove it directly into Russian positions, describing the improvised attack as a sign of how Ukraine is adapting with limited resources [1]. The same week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the success of Operation Veles, in which Kyiv sent troops deep into a disused gas pipeline in the Kupiansk region to confront Russian forces — flipping a tactic Russian troops have used for more than two years to slip past Ukrainian lines [2].
The pipeline operation is not the only place where Ukraine is pressing its advantage. The 125th Heavy Mechanized Brigade, which a year ago had just two pickups and a minibus and was told it could not be saved, has since grown its personnel by 430 percent and recovered 1,500 soldiers who had been absent without leave, rebuilding itself into a full combat brigade [7]. That turnaround helped drive Russian forces back during Operation Vivaldi, according to reports [8].
Armor is proving far from obsolete. NATO war games had led some experts to conclude that drones had made tanks a thing of the past, but Operation Vivaldi challenged that view by showing armored vehicles remain effective on the modern battlefield and offering NATO a practical example of how to keep tanks relevant against drone threats [3].
Ukraine's edge, commanders say, comes from speed. Brig. Gen. Steven Carpenter, head of Multi-Domain Command Europe, told Business Insider that the war has "shown us that he or she that adapts, wins," noting that "the battlefield we've seen in Ukraine is not the same battlefield that we saw in February 2022" [5]. Ukraine's defense now leans heavily on large numbers of uncrewed systems — drones and robots — used in the air, on land, and at sea, with its homegrown drone industry constantly updating products based on battlefield feedback [5]. One uncrewed ground vehicle recently completed nearly a 12-mile supply run on its own under combat conditions, a first for its unit, according to the report [5].
Cheap hardware is paying off in the air, too. A low-cost interceptor drone using a hobby-grade computer and a simple airframe destroyed a Russian jet-powered drone, with vision software detecting, tracking, and guiding the drone to impact while the crew managed the closing speed [6]. Drones are even pulling soldiers out of danger: one Ukrainian soldier who lost a foot was rescued from a combat zone by a drone that flew 15 kilometers into the area to bring him out [4].