Is there another victory for Ukraine? After three months of siege, Ukrainian troops drove the last Russian forces away from the city of Kharkiv.
Over 600 people have been killed in the city since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
With Russian forces driven back, most of the Russian weaponry has been pushed out of range, giving the citizens of Kharkiv a respite from indiscriminate attacks.
The 1st Guards Tank Army suffered armored vehicle losses in the first three weeks of the war, and a captured Russian log has just been published by the Ukrainian military intelligence. The commander of this elite unit was dismissed after weeks of unsuccessful attacks on the Kharkiv region.
If the documents are genuine, and they don't seem like some elaborate deception, they imply that the sub-units lost between one-quarter and one-half of their tanks in three weeks of fighting around Khark.
The only tank army in the Russian order of battle is the 1st Guards Tank Army. It has three powerful divisions and one brigade with more modern armored vehicles and equipment than the rest of the Russian Army. It has a higher ratio of contract soldiers than conscripts.
There are around 93 tanks in three battalions and one battalion of mechanized infantry mounted in IFVs. There are three battalions of mechanized infantry in BTR armored personnel carriers, and one tank battalion.
A high ratio of tanks even by Russian standards is what the tank army has.
In the field, these battalions were likely used to generate about two-thirds of the ad hoc battalion-tactical groups.
The army includes a brigade dedicated to each of the following: mobile BM 27 rocket and 2S19 howitzer systems, Iskander missiles, Buk medium-range air defense missiles, reconnaissance, and command-and-control.
In terms of casualties, the log suggests the 1st GTA lost 409 personnel.
The percentage loss rate for a Russian army-sized formation is low, despite the high number of surrendered troops.
The document further reports the loss of vehicles. Rob Lee is an expert on the Russian military.
—Rob Lee (@RALee85) May 16, 2022
Lee counted the loss of 131 tanks in the documents, which was more than four entire battalions of tanks out of the 16 tanks in the order of battle. The losses seem to correspond with the confirmed loss records on the Oryx blog.
The T-80s and T-90As are among Russia's best operational tanks, protected by various types of explosives and active protection systems. The T-90s have anti-laser guidance and French thermal sights, while the T-80s have gas-turbine engines.
The T-72B3M is an extensive modernization of the less expensive T 72.
They share the same vulnerability of having their 125-mm shells stored in an automatic loading system in the turret. If the armor is penetrated, there is a high risk of catastrophic detonation and poor odds of crew survival.
The heavy losses likely have less to do with the tanks than they do with Russian incompetence and Ukrainian perseverance, as explained below.
There were columns of armored vehicles from the 1st Guards Tank Army that streamed into and around the big city from the nearby Russian city of Belgorod.
The mechanized units streamed around the city's flanks, besieging the cities of Okhtyrka and Trostyanets, as poor and uncoordinated jabs into the suburbs were crushed. The aim was to open an additional eastern corridor to Kyiv and encircle Kharkiv, as Russian forces had done in Mariupol far to the south.
Russian forces were unable to capture these secondary cities because they lacked sufficient infantry to secure dense urban areas and properly screen tanks from ambushes. This allowed the Ukrainian defenders to hold on to their fingernails for weeks.
The supply lines of Russian units pushing into central-eastern Ukraine grew longer and suffered heavy losses from Ukrainian raids. The 92nd and 93rd mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian army began a series of fast-paced counterattacks that routed multiple Russian units.
By the end of March, the Russian forces' hold on the western cities was diminishing. The Russian military gave up the cities west of Kharkiv as it retreated from the approaches to Kyiv. Most of the 1st Guards Tank Army went back into Russia in order to be redeployed for a new campaign.
The Russian covering force was manned by lower-quality Russian rebels from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, as well as the 1st GTA's 200th and 27th Motor Rifle brigades, which were detached from Russia.
This residual presence was used to pin down the Ukrainian defenses around the city of Kharkiv and to sustain the bombardment.
The Ukrainian military was aware of the weakness of the Russian covering force. Three mechanized brigades were sent to launch a series of counter strikes against Russian forces in May, pushing them back toward the border or eastward against the Siverskyi Donets river.
The counteroffensive opened a corridor down the M-03 highway from Ukraine to Izium, a place where Russian troops are trying to punch through Ukrainian lines. The 2nd Tank Division of the 1st Guards Tank Army is one of the forces operating around the city.
The elite tank army may be done fighting, but they are not done fighting it.
Roblin writes on the technical, historical, and political aspects of international security and conflict for publications including The National Interest, NBC News, Forbes.com, and 19FortyFive. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and served with the Peace Corps in China. His articles can be found on the micro-blogging site.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
