Pointless Attacks on Trees! Ukrainian Combat Brigade Suffers Heavy Losses

One of the Ukrainian brigades lost entire companies in "pointless" attacks on useless strips of trees, writes David Axe for Forbes.

Combining drones, mines, missiles and artillery, the Ukrainian army's 47th Mechanized Brigade and 92nd Assault Brigade not only resisted a Russian assault on their positions in the western Kursk region on Friday - they destroyed it, leaving a strip of forest in the area littered with dead Russians.

It was a major victory for the two elite brigades - but one that could come with surprising risks. According to a Ukrainian combat veteran named Konstantin, there is a dangerous tendency among some Ukrainian commanders to assume that units that are effective on the defensive are also equally capable of attacking.

So when a formation like the 92nd Assault Brigade is defending its lines from a Russian attack, some commanders may be tempted to order the unit to abandon its fortifications, mass in open terrain, and advance toward the Russian lines. But attacking is riskier than defending and usually results in more casualties.

The Ukrainian 95th Air Assault Brigade, stationed in Kursk with the 92nd Assault Brigade, discovered this the hard way in early January when it quickly switched from defense to attack and advanced toward the village of Berdyn, north of the main Ukrainian line. A group of Russia’s best fiber-optic drones blasted the exposed Ukrainian paratroopers, inflicting heavy casualties and thwarting the ill-advised attack.

The same thing has happened more than once with the 92nd Assault Brigade. In the part of the brigade that fought in Kursk, “over the three years” of Russia’s wider war against Ukraine, its headquarters was changed three times “due to useless orders to seize a ravine at the cost of entire companies,” Konstantin explains. A company usually has more than 100 soldiers.

Left unspoken in Konstantin’s criticism is an implicit endorsement of the most obvious Ukrainian strategy as the wider war enters its fourth year. Deep-rooted Ukrainian brigades, with intact supply lines and support from drones and artillery, regularly inflict horrific losses on Russian troops—sometimes killing or maiming hundreds in a single engagement.

The Russians have no choice but to attack, as the Kremlin’s war aims are primarily offensive: to capture as much of eastern Ukraine as possible as quickly as possible.

The Ukrainians can lay their mines, pre-monitor artillery strike zones, arm their drones, and confidently wait for the Russians to cross the shelled no-man’s land. “Experienced Ukrainian units are extremely effective at repelling Russian attacks,” notes Konstantin.

By comparison, there is a Ukrainian definition of victory in this war that does not require much offensive action. Kiev’s forces could kill so many Russians, destroy so much Russian equipment, and inflict so much damage to Russian morale that Moscow’s forces would collapse. Only then, with their adversary collapsing, would the Ukrainians abandon their trenches and advance.

This has happened before. In the fall of 2022, Russian troops were severely depleted by their failed offensive on Kiev, which had launched the wider war six months earlier. Careful Ukrainian reconnaissance had discovered a weakness in certain sections of the Russian front line around the northeastern city of Kharkiv. A handful of the best Ukrainian brigades exploited this weakness, breaking through the Russian lines and causing panic among the exhausted Russians.

The Russians are retreating. The Ukrainians advanced behind them - and quickly liberated almost all of northeastern Ukraine.

The 92nd Assault Brigade, then designated the 92nd Mechanized Brigade, carried out one of the most impressive maneuvers of this counteroffensive when it quickly moved more than 80 km from the village of Prishyb to the city of Kupyansk. Today, the city remains free.

No one should be surprised that the 2023 offensive failed.

If the different results of Ukraine's separate counteroffensives in 2022 and 2023 tell us anything, it is that timing is everything. There may come a time when Russia is weak and Ukraine is strong, and Ukrainian brigades can go on the offensive with reasonable expectations of achieving something significant and lasting.

Given that Russia still has a significant advantage in manpower and firepower over Ukraine despite staggering Russian losses, that time is not now.

The 92nd Assault Brigade is holding a defensive position with effective weapons and inflicting heavy losses on the Russian assault groups. It is doing what it must to create favorable conditions for some future peace agreement or, failing that, for a possible Ukrainian attack on the weakened Russians.

Meanwhile, "commanders must prioritize preserving the lives of our experienced soldiers," Konstantin urged. Hold now so they can win later.