A Ukrainian paratrooper seeks shelter in a trench from an attack with multiple BM-21 Grad rocket launchers July 5, 2022 in Seversk, Ukraine. Laurent van der Stockt/Getty Images
- Russia has built layers of massive defenses and fortifications to hold off Ukraine’s advances.
- Among them are fake trenches designed to lure Ukrainians into a death trap, researchers discovered on a recent trip to Ukraine.
- These obstacles are among the many challenges standing in the way of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Ukrainian armed forces know how to clear a trench. In fact, we saw them do it flawlessly. But what happens when a ditch isn’t a ditch?
In advance of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Russian forces constructed a vast, complex network of trenches and other battlefield obstacles such as anti-tank barriers and minefields.
And while many of the trenches are actual Russian combat positions, others were traps, researchers learned from front-line Ukrainian forces.
Russia’s military “continued to adapt,” said Michael Kofman, a senior Russia expert at the Center for Naval Analyzes, in a “War on the Rocks” podcast discussion released Thursday after a recent trip to Ukraine with fellow war experts.
“They build fake trenches. They have mine trenches,” Kofman said, explaining that they are trying to “lure Ukrainian forces into mined trenches with remotely activated mines” and then detonate the mines.
“Once troops enter them, parts of the trenches are intentionally left empty,” he said, describing it as an attempt “to get Ukrainians into those trenches and then practically blow them up.”
A paratrooper from the 81st Airmobile Battalion takes cover in a ditch from an attack with multiple BM-21 Grad rocket launchers that destroyed a neighboring house July 5, 2022 in Seversk, Ukraine. Laurent van der Stockt for Le Monde/Getty Images
Clearing a trench is a difficult battlefield task that requires coordination of artillery and maneuvering forces.
A video released recently by Ukrainian special forces showed a trench clearance operation in which the Russians were surprised and defeated by the Ukrainians using clever tactics, but there is no guarantee that every battle will go their way.
The possibility that the trenches into which the Ukrainian infantry is charging could be a booby trap complicates matters enormously.
Kofman said the nature of adjustments in the Russian military goes beyond routine defense.
From his conversations with front-line Ukrainian military personnel, whom he met up close during his visit, he learned that Russia also does tricky things, like stacking anti-tank mines to rupture demining vehicles that can withstand the explosive force of a mine or two, but not necessarily more.
Russia is “doubling, tripling” them, he said of the anti-tank mines. Russian approaches endanger “high value targets” that Ukraine cannot afford to lose, thus jeopardizing their viability.
When it comes to landmines, others in Ukraine have observed similar tricks by the Russians.
Ryan Hendrickson, a former US Army special forces engineer who cleared improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and now works as a demining volunteer in Ukraine, spoke to Ukraine’s Toronto Television this week about some of the plans he and his team have uncovered.
Hendrickson said they encountered extremely complex minefields in which anti-tank mines were protected by anti-personnel mines and other explosives surrounded by booby-traps.
The purpose of such a facility is to maim or kill anyone involved in demining.
Paratroopers from the 81st Airmobile Battalion emerge from a trench after being attacked by a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher July 5, 2022 in Seversk, Ukraine. Laurent van der Stockt for Le Monde/Getty Images
But when it comes to Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Russian landmines are only part of the problem – not only do they kill troops outright, but they also slow down advancing forces and expose them to enemy artillery, missiles and airstrikes.
To stand in the way of a Ukrainian breakthrough, the Russian military has regular forces, motor-gun units, Spetsnaz units, etc. holding the lines, Kofman explained. They have a lot of artillery, and the Russian “entrenches include incredibly dense minefields, anti-tank and anti-personnel installations.” [mines] layered on top of each other.
Russia also has numerous anti-tank weapons stationed on the front lines, as well as drones, particularly Lancet-brand disposable drones, and ammunition loitering. They also have combat helicopters, which have thwarted the Ukrainian offensive.
“And they did extensive digging to cement fortifications, build bunkers and set up tunnels in some parts of the main line,” Kofman said, noting that these impressive defenses took months to construct.
And the biggest challenges facing Ukrainians in fighting these defenses are the lack of weapons they most need and their inability to conduct large-scale combined arms operations.
Franz-Stefan Gady, an expert at the Center for New American Security who also recently visited Ukraine for research purposes, called He suspects that in this situation “without a sudden collapse of the Russian defense” “it will remain a bloody battle of attrition, in which reserve units will gradually follow suit.”
“I think this offensive,” Kofman said in the podcast discussion of current developments in Ukraine and the attack on Russian lines, “is likely to last not just weeks but months.”
“I think there will be an extended period of attrition with fierce fighting and incremental gains by the Ukrainian armed forces, and that it will require a lot of artillery ammunition and adaptation,” he continued, adding, “It is very difficult to carry out such an offensive against a well-prepared defense.”
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