Russian tanks have not been able to advance around the eastern Ukrainian city of Wuhledar for weeks. US mines laid by the Ukrainian military prevent the advance.
Munich – Ukrainian military bloggers and news portals repeatedly publish aerial photos of clashes with Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin’s soldiers on social media. Russian tanks can often be seen rushing into a field to break through Ukrainian defenses. Suddenly there is an explosion and the tanks are blown up. The spectacle now happens almost every day around the embattled city of Wuhledar in Donetsk Oblast.
Since the start of the Ukraine war, Russian and Ukrainian troops have been fighting each other fiercely around Wuhledar. At the end of January, however, the Russian military stepped up attacks on the city in order to finally take it. However, Russian tanks apparently run directly into American mines, which the Ukrainian army uses extremely effectively. It is about the so-called Remote Anti-Armor Mine System (RAAM) – in German: remotely deployable anti-tank mine system.
American mines destroy Russian tanks – Putin’s troops fail in Wuhledar
At the end of last year, the US supplied around 6,000 of these RAAM missiles to Ukraine as part of military assistance against Russian aggression. As of January, the Ukraine was supplied with a total of around 10,200 RAAM systems. They are actually projectiles in the sense of howitzer projectiles and this is exactly where the advantage of the weapon lies.
Each RAAM projectile that can easily be fired from a 155mm howitzer carries 9 mines. These eventually spread around the target area. This is intended to deny the enemy access to a certain region for a certain period of time. After the previously specified time of around 24 hours has elapsed, the mines finally self-destruct. The RAAM mines thus pose a serious obstacle to the advance attempts of the Russian troops.
Russia with heavy losses in tanks – both parties rely on mines in the Ukraine war
The mines laid by Ukrainian troops in combination with anti-tank weapons have resulted in heavy losses for the Russian military in terms of tanks and other armored vehicles. Therefore, Russia feels compelled to now even mobilize armored troop carriers from Soviet times. Ukraine, on the other hand, will receive modern western tanks like the German Leopard-2 or the American Abrams.
Mines occupy an important place in the overall warfare in Ukraine, including on the Russian side. After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, Russian troops retreated, mining important roads and fields in the process. Ukrainian teams are still working to remove these mines in order to make the areas safe for civilians again. (bb)
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