Press
Zelensky is increasing the number of troops – but Ukraine is now wondering what its soldiers should take to the front with. Upcycling could help.
Kharkiv – “The enemy outnumbers us seven to ten times, we lack personnel,” said Lieutenant General Yuriy Sodol. The Ukrainian frontline fighter had informed his parliament about the predicament, which the Southgerman newspaper has reported. This would create huge holes in the front against Vladimir Putin’s invading troops. “We are maintaining our defense with the last of our strength,” Sodol said in parliament in a translation of the SZ. Troops that would have to defend 15-kilometer-long sections of the front could actually only hold a maximum of five kilometers, the newspaper continues.
The pressure for President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is now suddenly increasing on a second front – equipment. The magazine Forbes predicts that the gap that the mobilization law that has now been passed is intended to close could reveal another deficiency: the lack of armored vehicles; Tanks as well as armored personnel carriers. The Bundeswehr refers to the units that are called “mechanized units” or “motorized riflemen” in the East under the title “Panzergrenadier”. This branch of troops arose from the initiative of German tank general Heinz Guderian at the beginning of the Second World War, as the Bundeswehr explains.
“The Ukrainians are ready to take scrap themselves, tear it apart and turn three machines into one. This is something that can protect our soldiers.”
“His concept was to provide the tank units with all the support they needed as they advanced. This included engineers, artillery, repairs and also infantry. He planned that the Panzergrenadiers would be equipped with a special armoured vehicle, the infantry fighting vehicle, which they would use to fight mounted and dismounted.” The Bundeswehr follows the doctrine of “combined arms combat”: infantrymen are just as defenseless without armoured vehicles as armoured vehicles have little chance against infantrymen with anti-tank weapons.
Shortage on all fronts: Ukraine needs ten to a hundred times more support
“The USA has delivered 31 tanks – Ukraine would need 3,100 to retake territory,” is currently screaming star. However, there is some truth behind it. The magazine Militaryland reported at the beginning of April about the change of name from a mechanized brigade to an infantry brigade: “The 153rd Mechanized Brigade is no longer mechanized” – this is probably related to the lack of infantry fighting vehicles, assumed Militaryland. The problem is known and is due to the lack of supplies of vehicles. “The remaining ‘free’ mechanized equipment will now be allocated to motivated units that have proven themselves in combat,” the magazine writes.
Ukraine is said to have received around 7,500 vehicles from NATO stocks, according to Forbes based on figures from the statistics platform Orix reports. They also had thousands in their own stocks; 5,000 pieces are said to have been lost by now. Ukraine’s heavy losses will result in part from misuse. According to a report by the New York Times NATO had apparently misjudged the speed at which Ukraine could implement the tactics it had practiced in the West. Neither armored personnel carriers nor main battle tanks are used alone in combat; they form the tip of an attack wedge in a battle formation.
Lack beyond measure: Ukraine has often fallen into Putin’s fray
In this combination they achieve the highest effect or the highest operational value, with which they can defend or attack flexibly and powerfully over a width of several kilometers, like the magazine Defense Network reported. Depending on the size of the battle group, it is made up of around 40 to 60 combat vehicles – usually in a ratio of 1:1 or 1:2 between main battle vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles. “The nucleus and the forefront are the main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, which are grouped into companies – tactically called ‘maneuver elements’. They are the ones who meet the enemy in direct combat, mounted or dismounted, and bring direct fire to bear,” explains Defense Network further.
Behind this, for example, comes the artillery, which keeps the defenders down from the background. However, Ukraine is criticized for having switched back to Eastern bloc tactics and attacking in smaller groups. For example, the West’s heavy battle tanks are said to have fought relatively unprotected, which made them particularly vulnerable in the minefields. This leads to a thinned-out fleet for an army that is now growing again: President Volodymyr Selenskyj now wants to recruit 10,000 to 20,000 new soldiers from prisons alone after he passed his mobilization law – this is reported by the BBC Ukraine.
Mobilization beyond walls: Zelensky is now also recruiting in prisons
According to the South German newspaper The new mobilization law will mean a total of around 100,000 new soldiers for the Ukrainian army. With these, the challenge of mobility will increase – probably less in the current defense situation, but at the latest when Ukraine wants to regain territories occupied by Russians. “One of the most important weapons in the Ukraine war is called the truck,” said the The New Zurich Times reported at the beginning of last year – with a focus on the Russians. However, the same applies to Ukraine.
“In order for the Ukrainian troops to break the deadlock in the trenches and drive the Russian troops from their fortifications, they need all the conditions for a real mechanized combined-arms offensive: tanks, infantry in armored vehicles that can keep up with the tanks, self-propelled artillery, combat engineers and bridge construction equipment as well as supply vehicles,” wrote expert Michael Peck last year Business Insider – without vehicles there is no momentum, without momentum there is no further counter-offensive – there is no end to the war.
The defense policy journalist Peck identifies the shortcomings of the large Ukrainian units primarily in the possibility of rapid mobility thanks to heavily armed infantry fighting vehicles such as the American M2 Bradley, the German Marder or the Soviet BMP, as he writes. The Dutch government is currently offering a consolation prize by delivering its version of the old American M-113 infantry fighting vehicle, the Dutch YPR-765. The 207 units delivered so far will be followed by a tranche of an unknown number in the foreseeable future.
Material in any condition: Ukrainian politician also collects the scrap
Long-awaited help is also coming from Canada Forbes reports – scrap metal for upcycling. However, it ignited Forbes-Author David Axen, just a glimmer of hope: “Ukraine needs another 1,000 armored personnel carriers. It will take Canada a year to deliver 50,” he wrote – adding: In the same period, Ukraine would have lost ten times that amount. Canada’s army, as well as the New Zealand army, uses the LAV III light infantry fighting vehicle and now wants to replace it and hand over the old stocks.
Canada had promised Ukraine a total of 89 vehicles after the outbreak of war, and the first batch of 39 units arrived quickly. Ten more will be delivered to Europe this year. It is not yet clear when the remaining units will be delivered. Forbes open. However, at the end of last year, the Canadian government wanted to scrap 400 copies, as Ax writes – citing their desolate condition after decades of use – the material had endured missions in Kosovo as well as in Afghanistan.
But Ukraine fought against the Canadians’ hesitation, like CBC News by Oleksandra Ustinova reported – the chairwoman of the Armaments Commission had offered to upcycle: “The Ukrainians are ready to take scrap themselves, tear it up and turn three machines into one. This is something that can protect our soldiers.”
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