A 'Most Massive' Russian Tank Column Just Attacked Through Bad Weather: 29 Vehicles In All. Only Half Survived.

So far, the bad winter weather isn't saving Russia's mechanized assaults.

Ukrainian paratroopers from the 82nd Air Assault Brigade, fighting near Shakhove. 82nd Air Assault Brigade photo

The Russian military spent much of 2025 stockpiling tanks and other armored vehicles for a planned mechanized assault on the fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

In mid-October, these armored fighting vehicles—tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers—finally attacked. And promptly got wrecked by Ukrainian mines, drones and artillery.

The latest attack, on Monday, was the biggest and potentially the most costly for the five Russian marine brigades and regiments that carry out many of the mech assaults around Pokrovsk.

“The enemy launched 29 units of armored vehicles into the attack, making this offensive one of the most massive in recent times,” reported the Ukrainian 1st Azov Corps, which oversees many of the Ukrainian brigades in the sector.

“The enemy tried to complicate the actions of the defense forces of Ukraine by advancing the equipment in small groups—four to five units—along different routes and at different times,” the corps noted. (See video below.)

“A feature of the attack was the increase in the number of tanks,” the 1st Azov Corps added. These were presumably up-armored, gas turbine T-80BVMs, the favorite tanks of the Russian marine corps. The tank factory in Omsk, Siberia, has been producing “new” T-80BVMs by upgrading a rapidly diminishing reserve of old T-80 hulls from the 1980s or earlier.