Russian vehicles burn outside Pischane.
77th Air Mobile Brigade capture
Russian forces in eastern Ukraine are attacking west toward the Oskil River, apparently aiming to cut in half the Ukrainian Khortytsia operational strategic group in the area—complicating the group’s resupply and preventing them from supporting each other.
The effort is extremely costly for the Russians. They captured the village of Pischane, five miles east of the river, back in July. Now they’re trying—and so far failing—to reach the river near the village of Hlushkivka. On Thursday, a powerful Russian force with around a hundred armored vehicles attacked in three directions, targeting Ukrainian positions north and south of the salient.
In the north, Ukrainian brigades and battalions anchored by the 77th Air Mobile Brigade fought back, apparently in the usual way: with drones, artillery and anti-tank missiles. In the south, the Ukrainian 92nd Assault Brigade also held the line. Ukraine’s 40th Artillery Brigade is close enough to the Pischane salient to fire on Russian troops anywhere in the salient.
Russian losses were heavy. In the south, the 92nd Mechanized Brigade claimed it destroyed 14 vehicles including three tanks, five BMP fighting vehicles, an unspecified armored personnel carrier an MTLB armored tractor, three trucks and a golf cart.
The 77th Air Mobile Brigade claimed it “repulsed” the Russian attack in its area but didn’t specify how many vehicles it destroyed. A drone video of the battle depicts at least six immobilized and burning vehicles, including up-armored turtle tanks.
In all, the Russian force lost at least a fifth of its vehicles—blunting the Russian offensive toward the Oskil River and buying time for local Ukrainian troops to reinforce their defenses.
The Russians may yet win the battle. “The enemy will soon reach the left bank of the Oskil River in the Hlushkivka-Kruhlyakivka sector and split the Khortytsia OSG bridgehead on the Oskil River into two parts,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies predicted.
But if Thursday’s extreme losses are any indication, it might be yet another pyrrhic victory for the Russians. They gain some ground, but at the cost of a lot of increasingly difficult-to-replace equipment and people.
