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March 6, 2023 | 3:41 p.m
Russian reservists serving on the front lines in Ukraine have described being ordered to fight with shovels more than a century old, according to British intelligence.
In his latest update MondayThe British Ministry of Defense reported that late last month Moscow’s soldiers were forced to attack Ukrainian positions “armed only with ‘guns and shovels'”.
The ministry commented that the shovels likely refer to the standard MPL-50 entrenching tool used for hand-to-hand combat and designed in 1869, two years after the doomed reign of Tsar Nicholas II.
According to the Bulletin, the entrenchment tool used for hand-to-hand combat has remained largely unchanged over the past 154 years, and “its continued use as a weapon underscores the brutal and technically simple combat that characterizes much of the war.”
Russian reservists have described combat in Ukraine using shovels, the design of which has remained largely unchanged since 1869. De Agostini via Getty Images
One of the mobilized reservists was quoted as saying he was “neither physically nor psychologically” prepared to attack Ukrainian soldiers with the shovel, whose lethal properties have become the stuff of military lore among Russian soldiers.
According to British analysts, recent evidence points to an increase in infighting in Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces have been trying for months to seize the key Donetsk region city of Bakhmut.
“This is probably a result of the Russian command [continuing] To insist on offensive actions consisting largely of dismounted infantry, with less support from artillery fire because Russia is short on ammunition,” the update reads.
The Russian troops are believed to be short of ammunition, forcing them to conserve their existing supplies. AP
The intelligence assessment appears to back up claims by Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Mercenary Wagner group leading the battle in Bakhmut, who again lamented Monday that his fighters were in dire need of ammunition.
Prigozhin boasted last week that his men had practically surrounded Bakhmut, but on Saturday he warned that the front would collapse should Wagner be forced to retreat.
Prigozhin, a catering mogul and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has accused Russian Defense Ministry officials of “treason” for not sending his mercenaries enough ammunition — a claim senior military officials have vehemently denied.
A man walks in front of a destroyed school after a rocket attack in Kramatorsk, Dombass region March 6, 2023, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. AFP via Getty Images
A spokesman for Ukraine’s 10th Assault Brigade, Mykyta Shandyba, told Ukrainian TV that “it is clear” that Russian forces are facing an ammunition shortage that has limited their advances in Bakhmut.
But that hasn’t stopped the enemy from stepping up their attacks in recent days to try to break through Ukrainian lines.
In the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled almost 100 attacks in the Donbass region, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Volodymyr Nazarenko, a Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut, said there had been no order to retreat and “the defenses are holding”.
“The situation in Bakhmut and the surrounding area is hell, just like on the entire Eastern Front,” Nazarenko said in a video posted to Telegram.
With mail wires
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