Russia's Tanks Hid Behind Smoke—Ukraine's Drones Showed That Trick Is Dead
Russia doesn't use tanks often anymore; this disaster near Siversk shows why
Ukrainian drones, missiles and artillery devastated a Russian assault group outside of the town of Siversk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast on or just before Wednesday, blocking the Russians’ latest attempt to punch through Ukrainian defenses in order to drive at the so-called “fortress belt”—a chain of Ukrainian cities stretching through Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
It was a rare armored assault in a war where armored vehicles are increasingly vulnerable to drones, mines, missiles and artillery. At least four Russian vehicles—a tank and three fighting vehicles—rolled toward Siversk in broad daylight. The tank fired shells. At least one vehicle popped smoke grenades, its crew clearly hoping to hide the assault group from Ukrainian drones.
It didn’t work. Drones from the Ukrainian 4th National Guard Brigade spotted the Russians mid-assault. Massive firepower rained down, including explosive first-person-view drones, drone-dropped grenades, an apparent Javelin anti-tank missile and cluster artillery. “In the first minutes of repelling the attack, one tank and three units of enemy armored vehicles were hit,” the Ukrainian brigade reported.
A dozen or more Russian infantry managed to dismount from the harried vehicles. First-person-view drones, bomber drones and artillery made quick work of them.