Russia's Giant 'Giga Turtle' Tanks Are Back In Action
The gig turtles are among the biggest, and slowest, assault vehicles in the wider war
The Russian 4th Motor Rifle Brigade produces a unique type of up-armored turtle tank
This “giga turtle” is the biggest and heaviest of Russia’s many improvised assault vehicles
If there’s a downside to all that add-on armor, it’s that it slows the giga turtle to a crawl
That slow speed may have doomed a recent giga turtle assault south of Kostiantynivka
Russian forces have been trying and failing for more than a year to capture Kostiantynivka, a major obstacle between the Russian Center Group of Forces and the free cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
Despite suffering horrific casualties in their long siege of Kostiantynivka, the Russians aren’t giving up. On or just before March 26, one of the Center Group of Forces’ most experienced units—the 4th Motor Rifle Brigade—rolled out its best vehicles for a fresh push toward the fortified city.
The giga turtles’ return is part of a bigger shift. After a year of infantry-only assaults that cost Russia more than 418,000 casualties, Russian commanders are putting their troops back inside vehicles. The early results haven’t been encouraging. A 54-vehicle assault near Lyman on March 19 ended in what one Ukrainian drone operator called a “massacre.”
