onlyfactsplease

Russian Troops Left Their Warehouse Doors Open. Ukrainian Drones Flew Right Inside—And Blew Up A Bunch Of Armored Vehicles.

Feb 20, 2024

FPV drones burn down a warehouse full of Russian vehicles.
VIA CENSOR

Seemingly emboldened by the Russian conquest of Avdiivka, a former Ukrainian stronghold in eastern Ukraine, the Russian army reportedly shipped some of its best armored vehicles to southern Ukraine in anticipation of a separate offensive.

But Ukrainian forces located the warehouses where the Russians were stashing the T-72 and T-80 tanks, a BMP-3 fighting vehicle and a BREM engineering vehicle.

And then some very skilled Ukrainian drone operators from the Separate Presidential Brigade flew their explosives-laden first-person-view drones through the warehouses’ open doors and systematically demolished the vehicles inside. “As if in a shooting range,” according to Ukrainian media outlet Censor.

Soon the warehouses were burning. And the vehicles inside—two tanks, a BREM, a BMP and several gun-trucks and supply trucks together worth millions of dollars—cooked. There’s video of the whole debacle.

The cost of the strike to the Ukrainians? Just $5,000, according to Censor.

The drone raid is notable not just for the extreme skill of the Ukrainian operators, but also for the apparent range of the strike. The Russian army isn’t likely to pack tanks and BMPs into warehouses within normal range of Ukraine’s two-pound FPV drones. Two miles or so.

The implication is that the Ukrainians extended the range of their first-person quadcopters, possibly by flying them in a long formation with a larger “repeater” drone that captured, and rebroadcast, the FPVs’ command signals. With the help of a repeater drone, an FPV might range more than 10 miles.

But if the Ukrainians could locate a warehouse complex full of tanks 10 miles behind the front line, why not strike it with much heavier weapons than drones—artillery, rockets, even glide-bombs—and guarantee the instantaneous destruction of the entire complex?

The answer is obvious. The United States was the main supplier of Ukraine’s heavy munitions, and Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress since October have refused to vote on fresh aid to Ukraine. Ukrainian forces are running out of their heaviest weapons.

They’re not running out of drones, however. A network of thousands of small workshops spread across Ukraine, and funded in great part by small donations, churns out at least 50,000 FPV drones a month. More and more, these $500 drones are doing the work that artillery would do faster and more destructively.

In that sense, the warehouse raid is bad news for Ukraine. Yes, it’s embarrassing for the Russians that they lost, miles from the front, nearly a company of vehicles to a handful of tiny drones.

But it’s equally appalling to the Ukrainians that they had little choice but to attack with drones instead of with, say, M30/31 rockets.

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/2024/02/20/russian-troops-left-their-warehouse-doors-open-ukrainian-drones-flew-right-inside-and-blew-up-a-bunch-of-armored-vehicles/?ss=aerospace-defense

7 comments

  1. That’s not only an awesome strike, but quite funny, too.

    “But it’s equally appalling to the Ukrainians that they had little choice but to attack with drones instead of with, say, M30/31 rockets.”

    It’s not only the fault of the US. Europe also has a huge economy, but it can’t lift a leg to piss higher than even a poodle could.

    Reply

  2. An open door is an invitation, right? Perhaps even a well thought through one. After all, no APCs, no attack, no death in a meat grinder! 😎

    Reply

  3. I saw that video the other day and it was awesome. Only one thing missing….fuckin dead Russians. Otherwise it would have been perfect.

    Reply

  4. CapWillie seems to hate all Russians. War is evil, on both sides. The problem here is that thousands of Russians who did not support war against Ukraine were unable to stop Putin’s crimes, before Russia’s “strong leader”, that they had voted for, developed into a dictator North-Korean style. The majority of Russians remained silent when Putin’s regime killed Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemcov and other dissidents. There were protests, but the Russian people should have been stronger than their own army and oppressing police forces a few years ago. Now many Russians are living outside Russia, because they did not want this war. Russians who are still in Russia are either brainwashed by propaganda, so they don’t know better, or they are too afraid, likely for a good reason, because the OMON police soldiers will arrest even their own mother, just for laying flowers at the bridge were Boris Nemcov got killed.

    Dehumanizing people fuels hate that facilitates war. Sure, we have to be ready to fight for our freedom, even with bold military violence, but we should never allow ourselves to fall victim to the blind hate that CapWillie is showing. Such hate will make this senseless war last for ever and we don’t need another slaughterhouse like the First World War in the mud of Northern France. CapWillie, dear keyboard warrior, if you think you know it all, please go visit Verdun in France and try to count the graves on those battlefields. Then come back, support Ukraine in any way you can, but please refrain from hate speech. The judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague will have to see over war crimes, regardless if they were committed by Russians or Ukrainians, even if our sympathy is with the underdog defending their own country. If you are religious (not me), Saint Peter will judge, when dead war criminals will be refused entry into heaven.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to AnonymousCancel reply