Russia army reels as Ukraine wipes out battalion of elite Putin troops | World | News

Volodymyr Zelensky’s army destroyed a battalion of Russian marines as they attempted to breach Ukrainian defensive lines near Pokrovsk. Ukraine has moved many of its troops out of besieged Donetsk city and repositioned them near the villages of Zatyshok and Razyne.

There, they have built new defensive positions on mostly open terrain, which offers no cover for the advancing Russians. With no urban ruins to shelter in, the Russians’ only protection is bad weather and makeshift anti-drone armour. However, Ukrainian bomber drones are increasingly being equipped with thermal cameras, enabling them to detect the heat of a person or vehicle through fog.

Russian troops must not only cross open fields but also cross the Kazenyi Torets River to reach the new Ukrainian positions.

This makes them even more vulnerable to drone and artillery attacks, which have inflicted massive casualties on Putin’s forces.

Over the past few days alone, Kyiv’s army claims to have killed and injured more than 1,000 Russian troops per day in the sector.

In one of the latest incidents, commanders from Russia‘s 40th Naval Infantry Brigade sent four armoured columns towards Razyne.

They were quickly detected by reconnaissance units before being hit by a barrage of drones and artillery fire, which included HIMARS precision-guided rockets. The damage was inflicted by the National Guard of Ukraine’s Azov 1st Corps, as well as by elements of the SBS drone unit.

Final figures released by the Azov press office indicate Ukrainian forces destroyed six tanks, nine infantry fighting vehicles, five armoured personnel carriers (APCs), and one armoured recovery vehicle (ARV).

However, the military analyst Moklasen believes the total figure of armoured vehicles destroyed is closer to 30.

“The elimination of enemy personnel involved in the assault is ongoing,” the press service of the Azov Corps said at the time.

“We thank all units defending the sector of the 1st NGU Corps—particularly the fighters of the NGU’s special operations detachment ‘Lasar’s Group’ and the SBS drone units—for their decisive contribution to repelling the mass attack.”

Analysts have for many months urged Ukraine’s army to shift their defensive focus from towns to fields, thereby depriving Russian soldiers of cover.