A Ukrainian Tank Blasted Russian Infiltrators from Yards Away
Russians slipped deep into Kupiansk, and ran right into an alert Ukrainian tank crew
Russian infantry slipped past Ukrainian defenses around the city of Kupiansk, in Kharkiv Oblast, on or before Tuesday. A Ukrainian tank, presumably from the 116th Mechanized Brigade, rolled right up to the half-demolished building the Russians were sheltering in—and blasted them at point-blank range.
It’s the latest instance of Ukrainian tanks engaging, and defeating, under-supported Russian infantry in a close fight. But it’s an ominous development for Ukraine. The brutal, zero-distance skirmish took place in Kupiansk, a town with a pre-war population of 25,000 and a key strongpoint anchoring Ukrainian defenses just 90 km east of Kharkiv and its millions of residents.
Russian infantry weren’t supposed to appear inside Kupiansk, some 6 km from what most mappers consider the “front line” in Kharkiv.
The problem, of course, is that the front isn’t really a line anymore. “The reality is that there isn’t a coherent front line,” American analyst Andrew Perpetua explained.
Positive view: this is Ukraine rope-a-doping Russia into sending soldiers far enough ahead that they aren’t protected by drones and therefore can be eliminated with few or zero Ukrainian casualties.
Negative view: Ukraine doesn’t have enough infantry and so Russia will start to push the Ukrainians back more and more
llook for a bumper crop of sunflowers in the spring