An abandoned Ukrainian M-1 Abrams tank.
Drone capture via Militaryland.netFighting to halt the Russian advance west of the ruins of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army’s 47th Mechanized Brigade has lost another pair of its best American-made armored vehicles: an M-1 Abrams tank and an Assault Breacher engineering vehicle.
The losses might not be permanent: the M-1 in particular probably is recoverable if engineers can get to it before a Russian drone does. But the loss, even if temporary, underscores the intensity of the battle in Berdychi.
Two weeks after the ammunition-starved Ukrainian garrison retreated from Avdiivka, a former Ukrainian stronghold just northwest of Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, the Russian 2nd and 41st Combined Arms Army have turned their attention to Berdychi and the other villages west of Avdiivka.
The 47th Brigade—the main operator of Ukraine’s ex-American tracked armored vehicles originally including 31 M-1s, 90 M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and perhaps six Assault Breachers—pulled back from Stepove, on Avdiivka’s northern flank, and established a new defensive line in Berdychi, five miles to the west.
There, they’ve met Russian assault groups deploying banzai-style tactics. Each Russian attack involves several groups of fighting vehicles—lately, wheeled BTR-80s—that, after heavy aerial bombardment by Russian air force fighter-bombers lobbing 2,200-pound glide-bombs, barrel toward Ukrainian lines.
The BTR crews practically dare the Ukrainians to fire off some of their dwindling artillery ammunition, which has been in desperately short supply ever since Russia-friendly Republicans in the U.S. Congress cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine starting in October.
The vehicles drop off the infantry in some defensible position—an abandoned building, usually—then speed away. The infantry brace for incoming explosive drones as well as the inevitable Ukrainian counterattack while awaiting a second, third and even fourth Russian assault group to join them.
The Russians’ objective is to shuttle in enough troops to create a lodgement inside Ukrainian lines. The Ukrainians’ objective is to kill the Russian assault troops as fast as they arrive. For the 47th Brigade, that means deploying M-1s and M-2s under the cover of drones—and supported by mine-clearing Assault Breachers—to close on the lightly-supported Russian infantry.
It’s dangerous work for the 47th Brigade’s weary troopers, who have been in combat practically non-stop for nine months. In just the last two weeks the brigade has lost two M-1s, several M-2s and two Assault Breachers: perhaps five percent of its best armored vehicles. It’s unclear how many of the crews bailed out before their vehicles burned.
But the 47th is inflicting many more losses than it’s taking. There are several videos depicting recent counterattacks by M-2s that resulted in the fighting vehicles chopping up, with their 25-millimeter auto-cannons, dozens of cowering Russian infantry.
Berdychi holds, according to the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies. “The adversary is utilizing Stepove as a launching point for the assault on Berdychi, yet a number of their assault units were repelled by the forces of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade,” CDS reported Sunday.
But it’s apparent that the 47th Brigade’s artillery-shortage is forcing it to fight close instead of far—and risk its M-1s, M-2s and Assault Breachers.
How long can the 47th hold out? Hopefully long enough for those million shells—which European Union and Czech Republic are preparing to ship—finally arrive in Ukraine in the coming weeks. And if the brigade can endure another few weeks after that, it might also start getting shells from the United States.
That’s because, under intensifying pressure from pretty much the entire free world as well as from a few moderate Republican lawmakers, the far-right speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson has signaled he might finally allow a vote on fresh aid to Ukraine sometime in late March or early April.
