Winter Fog Raids: While Ukrainian Troops Flee North Out Of Pokrovsk, One Elite Battalion Is Attacking South

Bad weather grounds and blinds drones, helping the infantry move more freely

425th Assault Regiment photo

The fog in Ukraine gives … and it takes.

The worsening winter weather all along the 700-mile front line of Russia’s 45-month wider war on Ukraine can, according to Carnegie Endowment analyst Michael Kofman, “significantly degrade” the drones that are usually everywhere all the time.

When the fog is thickest and the drone threat is lowest, the Russians attack. But then, so do the Ukrainians. A recent montage of drone videos, circulated by the general staff in Kyiv, depicts troopers from the Ukrainian assault branch’s 425th Assault Regiment riding into Pokrovsk in an M-113 armored personnel carrier and, in a separate shot, darting across the rail lines that bisect Pokrovsk from west to east. (See video below.)

The 425th Assault Regiment has been conducting sporadic raids into central Pokrovsk for a couple of weeks now. The thickening fog has prolonged these raids and even allowed the regiment to bring in armored vehicles. “Fog is an equal-opportunity employer,” Ukraine Control Map noted.

To many observers, the winter fog is Russia’s close ally. This is an understandable mischaracterization, as the Russians have been on the offensive in Ukraine for more than two years now. They’re the ones most in need of concealment as they break cover and assault across open ground.