500 Russians Attacked On 130 Vehicles. Ukrainians Wiped Out 80%.
'Russians can be stopped.'
Bottled up in the southeast on account of Ukraine’s recent counteroffensive and exhausted in the east after capturing the ruins of Pokrovsk, the Russians attempted to restore momentum to their flagging offensive in Ukraine by massing mechanized forces for a fresh push around the city of Lyman in the east.
The aim: to break through Lyman and march on the city of Sloviansk, 12 miles to the southwest. Sloviansk and neighboring Kramatorsk are the last big free cities in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast—and top objectives for the Russia as its wider war on Ukraine grinds into its 50th month.
The Russian 25th Combined Arms Army mustered a seemingly powerful force for the March 19 assault: 500 troops, 28 armored vehicles and more than 100 motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles.
But all that metal and flesh collided with a stiff Ukrainian defense. (See video below.) “We were prepared to increase the intensity of the crowd of the Russian horde, so we made the necessary management decisions,” Ukrainian commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi stated. “The troops received replenishment, were provided with military equipment, weapons, ammunition.”
When the smoke cleared, the Ukrainian 3rd Army Corps counted no fewer than 405 Russian casualties including at least 288 killed in action. “Zero advance,” Ukrainian drone operator Kriegsforscher reported. “Russians can be stopped.”
