'I Told You This Would Happen,' Ukrainian Drone Pilot Writes As Russia Hurls More Tanks At Pokrovsk

Mechanized assaults are back in a big way

The Russian army’s 5th Motor Rifle Brigade hurled 18 armored vehicles—a porcupine tank and 17 infantry fighting vehicles—in the direction of the fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine on Monday.

Drones and artillery from the Ukrainian 79th Air Assault Brigade blew up the tank and 12 IFVs just east of Myrnohrad and killed “about a hundred occupiers,” according to the brigade. “The remnants of the enemy units retreated, suffering significant losses." (See video above.)

After many months of infantry-led assaults, the Russians are once again staging armored assaults—and in a big way. “Weeks ago I told [you] that this [was] gonna happen,” Ukrainian drone operator Kriegsforscher wrote.

It’s true. Observers noted the build-up in Russian mechanized forces around Pokrovsk—the urban gateway to the twin cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk—in August.

But Russian commanders waited weeks to deploy their hundreds of tanks and other armored fighting vehicles. They gambled that the fog and clouds accompanying the coming winter would offer more concealment, more than compensating for the decrease in concealment resulting from the trees shedding their leaves.