onlyfactsplease

Modern Banzai Charge: Russian Troops Pile Onto Vehicles, Speed Toward Ukrainian Lines … And Die. But The Tactic Is Helping Russia Advance.

Feb 26, 2024

Russian troops assault Robotyne.
RUSSIAN ARMY CAPTURE

During World War II, Japanese troops often resorted to human-wave attacks they hoped would overwhelm Allied troops. The Allies labeled these attacks “banzai charges”—and responded by opening fire with machine guns and mortars.

Eighty years later in Ukraine, Russian troops are resorting to similar tactics. The difference now is that the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition, mostly owing to Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress continuing to block U.S. aid to Ukraine.

Infantry-first “meat assaults” are nothing new in Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, but the tactics are evolving. Noting the Ukrainians’ desperate shortage of artillery ammo, the Russians are betting that back-to-back-to-back waves of troops, riding in or on infantry fighting vehicles, can deplete Ukrainian firepower faster than the Ukrainians can deplete Russian manpower.

The Ukrainian Center for Defenses Strategies noted the modern banzai tactics in fighting around west of the ruins of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. “A strike group, comprising 100 to 200 personnel on eight to 12 IFVs, rapidly advances to the front line of the Ukrainian defense forces and initiates an attack,” CDS explained.

“Due to a [Ukrainian] ammunition shortage, a segment of the assault group reaches the target and engages in combat. Concurrently, another assault group swiftly moves towards the battle area.”

“This tactic allows for a continuous build-up of effort but results in substantial enemy losses,” CDS concluded. “Up to 60 percent of armored vehicles in a single attack and up to half of the personnel. This also leads to increased casualties in the Ukrainian defense forces units, which is critical for them.”

The Russian army’s 70th Motor-Rifle Regiment deployed the tactic in Robotyne, in southern Ukraine, on Saturday. At least two BMP-3 tracked IFVs barreled into the devastated settlement—the southernmost Ukrainian position in Zaporizhzhia Oblast—and, firing as they moved, dropped off infantry who then sheltered in collapsed buildings.

The BMP-3s retreated, leaving the infantry to fight alone against the Ukrainian 65th Mechanized Brigade and its explosive drones. It seems there were few Russian survivors.

So the Russians tried again the next day, this time rolling three BTR-82 wheeled IFVs toward Robotyne. A Ukrainian mine popped one of the BTRs. A Ukrainian soldier reportedly from the 118th Mechanized Brigade hit a second BTR with a rocket-propelled grenade, at least temporarily halting the assault.

The banzai attacks are extremely costly for the Russians, and help to explain why the Russians are losing around 800 troops a day, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry. And why the Russians have, in the estimation of open-source analyst Andrew Perpetua, written off or abandoned 19 BMPs and BTRs in just the last two days.

In the first two years of the wider war, the Russians on average lost around 80 BMPs and BTRs per month. Lately, they’ve been losing them at a rate of hundreds per month. That’s attrition that even the Russians, with their large stocks of old Cold War vehicles, can’t sustain for very long.

It’s not for no reason the Kremlin has enough IFVs for maybe another year of hard fighting. At which point Russian troops will have to find other ways of riding into battle.

But in the short term, the modern banzai charges—however costly for the Russians—are working. Robotyne now is in the “gray zone,” where neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians fully are in control. And according to CDS, the Russians have advanced around Ivanivske, too.

Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website or some of my other work here. Send me a secure tip. 

David Axe

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/26/modern-banzai-russian-troops-pile-onto-vehicles-speed-toward-ukrainian-lines–and-die-but-the-tactic-is-helping-russia-advance/?ss=aerospace-defense

13 comments

  1. The lack of ammo is helping russia, not the tactics. mafia land have been using these tactics from day 1, and got nowhere fast. Johnson is to blame for any russian advances, not russian tactics.

    Reply

  2. The pro-russian faction of Congress–I refuse to call them Republicans–will not be viewed kindly in history books for their deplorable behavior and for causing human losses in Ukraine (Ukrainian losses, that is; the others are just drunk insects). This won’t be a temporary phenomenon. Like Benedict Arnold, or Lord Haw-Haw in Britain, the black splotches on themselves will last forever.

    Reply

    • If by some miracle, the EU and UK manage to supply Ukraine with enough weapons to defeat the horde, the US are going to look pretty sick. I know it’s a big if, but the EU do seem to be waking up now.

      Reply

    • I looked at “the political positions of Mitch McConnell” on Wikipedia:

      “In March 2022, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, McConnell stated that Republicans who support Vladimir Putin are “lonely voices” in the Republican party. However, he dodged an invitation to say such Republicans should be ejected from party or face disciplinary measures.”

      He has just made a speech of support to Ukraine on the second anniversary of the putler horror. It had good words, but did not mention the magaputler cult.
      Since they are the real “RINO”s, they are neither Republicans or conservatives and really should be expelled.
      Unfortunately they are not “lonely voices” anymore. Their Ukraine policy is the same as Charles Lindenbergh’s “America First” bloc. They even have the same slogan.

      Reply

Enter comments here: