Metal Spikes Stop Russian Bikes
The Kremlin thought motorcycles would save its war effort
When Russia pivoted to motorcycle-based offense, Ukraine began shifting to anti-motorcycle defense. There were delays, but new bike-beating tools are proliferating across the 1,100-km front line of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine.
It’s possible these new tools are already slowing Russia’s summer offensive.
Some Ukrainian drones are dropping traffic spikes—unfolding ribbons with tire-popping metal spikes—in order to block roads ahead of Russian motorcycle assaults.
The traffic spikes work. A video montage posted online by the Ukrainian 82nd Air Assault Brigade recently depicts drones dropping the spikes by night near Pokrovsk—and causing Russian bike troops to crash by day. The brigade apparently sends grenade-dropping bomber drones and explosive first-person-view drones to strike the ejected riders after they crash.