23 December 2025
AFP via Getty Images
Russian forces are now attacking Ukrainian positions on horseback. It is a sign of how battlefield tactics are evolving under a drone-dominated sky.
Ukrainian troops from the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade reported detecting a group of Russian soldiers advancing toward their positions on horseback. Video footage released by the brigade shows the mounted troops being identified and struck by Ukrainian drone operators shortly after detection.
In the opening footage, a Russian soldier is seen riding across open terrain as a Ukrainian drone follows his movement. Moments later, the drone strikes as the soldier attempts to evade it. The explosion spooks another horse, unseating its rider before the animal bolts off in a different direction, while the fate of a third mounted soldier remains unclear.
As Yaroslav Trofimov of The Wall Street Journal wrote on X, “They used to call this World War I with drones, so the Russians have decided to launch cavalry units on horseback.”
Anatolii Tkachenko, a Ukrainian mortar battery commander from the 92nd Brigade told me, “This was actually the first time we’d seen this.” Horses, he noted, are believed to move quietly and cope better with mud than vehicles.
“We wiped them out on motorcycles, and now with the mud they’re constantly falling and the bikes are breaking down. There are a lot of factors at play,” said Tkachenko.
Weather conditions are further shaping battlefield adaptation. “Out in the fields right now, the mud is so bad that nobody can get through. You’ll spend an hour walking one kilometer because your legs sink completely,” Mykola Melnyk, a former officer with Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade told me in an interview.
The brigade said Russian losses of vehicles during repeated infantry “meat assaults” have become so severe that mounted movement is now being attempted as a substitute for mechanized transport. Even motorcycles, once widely used by Russian assault units, are proving unreliable in deep mud and increasingly vulnerable to drones.
Logistics Under Drone Fire
By April, the exhaustion of Russia’s vehicle fleet had become increasingly apparent. The reduced presence of armored vehicles on the battlefield, combined with a growing reliance on civilian transport – including motorcycles, golf carts, and vans – signaled a steady degradation of Russian maneuver capabilities, according to Tatarigami, founder of the Frontelligence Insight analysis group.
Ukraine is also facing a shortage of trucks, pickup vehicles, and armored transport, due to the drone threat. According to the BBC, the head of unmanned systems for the Ukrainian army’s 7th Corps said that around 90 percent of frontline supplies in the Pokrovsk sector are now delivered by unmanned ground vehicles.
Offensive operations have also become more difficult under the scale of drone warfare seen in Ukraine. Large-scale maneuver, once central to mechanized warfare, is now difficult to conceal and even harder to sustain.
Ukraine’s Drone Wall
Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone operator with the 413th Separate Battalion of Unmanned Systems, told me that Ukrainian forces are increasingly intercepting Russian units well before they reach the front line.
“My team focuses on infantry groups and vehicles 15–20 kilometers from the front. We hit them as they move so they never reach the actual battlefield,” said Zhluktenko.
Zhluktenko added that there have been no major changes in Russian tactics. Instead, the expanding use of drones has allowed Ukrainian forces to destroy a significant portion of Russian logistics. Shaun Pinner, a former British soldier who fought in Mariupol in 2022, told me, “Every inch of the line is under constant surveillance drones, artillery spotting, and counter battery fire make it nearly impossible for either side to move unnoticed.”
As a result, reducing battlefield signatures has become critical to survival. Heavy armor, while offering protection, moves slowly and generates larger signatures, such as kicking up dust, making it easier for drones to detect and target.
Low-Tech Adaptation
In response, Russian forces have experimented with low-tech alternatives designed to reduce detectable signatures. In previous instances, troops have used pack animals such as donkeys to move supplies in an attempt to evade drone surveillance. Horses and camels have previously been used too, in addition to Russian soldiers riding into battle on e-scooters.
Russian assaults now often rely on very small infantry groups, typically two to three soldiers, attempting to infiltrate Ukrainian positions. Once in place, these troops dig in and are frequently resupplied by drone.
The Kremlin’s generals use whatever means are available to probe Ukrainian lines. This has included sending soldiers through underground pipes, operations that have reportedly led to fatalities from suffocation, according to Russian reporting.
A Symptom, Not a Revival
The use of horses is not purely improvisation. In October 2025, Russian business daily Kommersant reported that the Russian military was exploring the reintroduction of mounted elements within assault units operating on the Ukrainian front. The paper described training efforts within Russia’s Central Military District, including experiments in which two soldiers ride a single horse before dismounting to attack.
Kommersant emphasized that any return of cavalry would be limited and largely symbolic. Horses offer marginal advantages in terrain where vehicles are easily detected.
The return of mounted troops shows how drone-dominated battlefields have stripped the Russian army of freedom of movement. When supply columns are constantly exposed from the air, forces are pushed toward more basic ways of moving. In Ukraine, even these offer little protection. The lesson is not that cavalry is returning to the battlefield, but that drones have left few safe ways to cross it.
What kind of mind does it take to get the hare-brained idea to use horses in combat in the 21st century? A ruskie mind, the sickest on this planet.
Well. If the horse is killed = lunch time! ruSSian efficiency…
I’m surprised they don’t eat the horses before going on their domed cavalry attacks.