Russia Keeps Burning Through Its Last Tanks—So Why Isn't Ukraine Winning?
Russia's rare armored push near Kostyantynivka was destroyed. But the broader war still favors no one.
It’s increasingly rare for Russian regiments to organize a large mechanized attack. Running low on armored vehicles but flush with fresh infantry, the Russians increasingly attack on motorcycles, quad bikes … or on foot.
So it’s worth taking note when and where Russians forces roll out some of their vanishingly rare tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers. The targets of the infrequent mechanized assaults are some of the Russians’ main objectives as their wider war on Ukraine grinds into its 40th month.
It should come as no surprise that the town of Kostyantynivka is one of those main objectives. Frustrated in their attempts to directly attack the fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, Russians forces are trying to flank Pokrovsk—by rolling through Kostyantynivka, 40 km to the northeast. They’re willing to risk some of their armored vehicles for the chance to capture Kostyantynivka.
On Wednesday, a substantial Russian force—around a dozen up-armored BMPs and other vehicles—split into two sections and rolled north
east from Novoolenivka, heading for the village of Yablunivka.
A possible answer is that Ukraine realises that a battlefield victory is unlikely and that the best strategy is to bleed both Russia’s war fighting capacity and its economy.
Ukraine is fighting the archer, depriving him of materiel and sustenance, as well defending against the arrows.