How Ukrainian Paratroopers Spoiled A Russian Tank Offensive
The terrain helped
The Russian army’s 90th Tank Division and a pair of supporting combined arms armies spent months planning a powerful mechanized assault toward Kramatorsk, one of just two big free cities in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
It’s not for no reason that the attack apparently failed on July 22. A clutch of Ukrainian air assault brigades meticulously spoiled the attack in a complex operation beginning in April. Counterattacking through gaps in Russian defenses around the village of Komar, 60 miles southwest of Kramatorsk, the paratroopers pinned down half of the 90th Tank Division’s forces.
So when the division attack in July, it attacked weakly. Ukrainian drones made quick work of the advancing T-72B3A tanks and other vehicles.
Mapper and analyst Clément Molin reverse-engineered the Ukrainian operation from the scant evidence that appeared online through a surprisingly thick veil of information security. Molin’s post is worth a close read.
