Russia's motorbike squads may be suicidal but they are hurting Ukraine
Ukrainian drones spring into action and the race is on. Without any cover, the riders have just minutes to zigzag across mines and craters to reach an enemy trench-line before they are picked off.
The odds are not in their favour.
Since they were trialled over a year ago, most motorbike attacks have ended in failure, with the majority of riders killed before they can reach their target.
Yet, those that are successful solve a key tactical challenge in Ukraine: how to cross an open battlefield under constant surveillance from above – and fast.
Russia's military is said to be planning to systematically integrate motorbikes across the front ahead of new offensives.
Run, stab, escape
Plenty of lives will be lost, but Russia's precious armoured vehicles will be saved – an apparent victory in the eyes of a military that has a steady stream of manpower, but is forced to draw on a rusting stockpile of Soviet-era tanks that have proven unsuitable for the battlefields of Ukraine.
The first reports of motorbikes squads started to appear in April 2024. It began as an informal, ad hoc response to persistent drone strikes, which now kill or maim up to 70 per cent of all soldiers and destroy more armoured vehicles than all other weapons systems combined.
Since autumn last year, there has been a considerable increase in bike-led attacks in Ukraine's north-eastern Kharkiv region and Donetsk to the east, where Russia largely abandoned armoured vehicle usage after suffering unsustainable losses in the winter of 2023 to 2024.
The attacks are fast-paced, but deeply flawed. For months on end, drone footage has shown the remnants of such failures, which have turned the edges of fields and Ukrainian trench lines into a junk yard of twisted metal and burnt tyres.
It is not just bikes, but all kinds of unconventional unarmoured vehicles turning up at the front, including quad bikes, civilian cars, Chinese-made buggies and electric scooters.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Incredible Bentley TANK uncovered by cops after being abandoned & left to rust in bushes outside garage
AN astonishing Bentley tank has been unearthed from a bush by cops after being abandoned outside a garage. The £200,000 GT Coupe was discovered during a raid on a workshop in St Petersburg, Russia. 2 2 Immigration officers found the luxury vehicle on 30 July when they were looking for illegal workers. Police video footage of the operation shows the hybrid motor parked up among weeds and bushes outside the garage. Officers also discovered 67 hybrid and heavily adapted vehicles on the site either with illegal registration documents or unroadworthy bodywork changes. A police spokesperson said: "Given the nature of the site, special attention was paid to vehicles." The Bentley is believed to be modelled on an earlier "Ultratank" built by Russian petrolhead Konstantin Zarutskiy for his YouTube channel AcademeG. His prototype, with higher tracks, could reach 81 mph, slower than the Bentley's original 200mph but still faster than any other tracked vehicle. This isn't the first time a luxury motor has been seized in a police crackdown on crime. In the UK too, police are frequently confiscating supercars to improve safety in the capital. Last year, Scotland Yard confiscated vehicles including a McClaren, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari and Lamborghini. I bought £13,000 Bentley only to learn it was once owned by legendary TV host of classic 1980s game show Westminster local residents complained about cars driving poorly or at high-speed. So the force worked with Westminster City Council and the Motor Insurers' Bureau to remove nuisance drivers who drive around the area more frequently in the summer months. The operation launched on the evening of August 2 and ran across that weekend seizing £6million worth of cars. Officers also made five arrests including for insurance fraud, using a mobile phone at the wheel, not using a seatbelt and driving without due care. Metropolitan Police Special Inspector Geoff Tatman said: "The Met is working to put communities first - listening to and tackling their concerns. "This hugely successful operation has proved we are dealing with those crimes, such as anti-social driving, that is causing most distress to residents and tourists. "This brilliant partnership work between the Met's Vehicle Enforcement Team, Motor Insurers' Bureau and Westminster City Council demonstrates to Londoners we are doubling down on crime on the roads. "It's also testament to the hard work and dedication of the Met Special Constables – volunteer police officers - that play a vital role in our mission to make London safer and kindly give up their free time help serve the community."
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
A settler accused of killing a Palestinian activist is to be freed. Israel still holds the body
An Israeli settler accused of killing a prominent Palestinian activist during a confrontation captured on video in the occupied West Bank will be released from house arrest, an Israeli court ruled Friday. The video shot by a Palestinian witness shows Yinon Levi brandishing a pistol and tussling with a group of unarmed Palestinians. He can be seen firing two shots, but the video does not show where the bullets hit. Witnesses said one of the shots killed Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher and father of three, who was uninvolved and was standing nearby. The Israeli military is still holding Hathaleen's body and says it will only be returned if the family agrees to bury him in a nearby city. It said the measure was being taken to 'prevent public disorder.' The confrontation occurred on Monday in the village of Umm al-Khair, in an area of the West Bank featured in 'No Other Land,' an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence and life under Israeli military rule. In a court decision obtained by The Associated Press, Judge Havi Toker wrote that there was 'no dispute' that Levi shot his gun in the village that day, but she said he may have been acting in self-defense and that the court could not establish that the shots killed Hathaleen. Israel's military and police did not respond to a request for comment on whether anyone else may have fired shots that day. Multiple calls placed to Levi and his lawyer have not been answered. The judge said Levi did not pose such a danger as to justify his continued house arrest but barred him from contact with the villagers for a month. Levi has been sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries over allegations of past violence toward Palestinians. President Donald Trump lifted the U.S. sanctions on Levi and other radical settlers shortly after returning to office. A total of 18 Palestinians from the village were arrested after the incident. Six remain in detention. Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer who has lobbied for sanctions against radical settlers, including Levi, said the court ruling did not come as a surprise. "Automatically, Palestinian victims are considered suspects, while Jewish suspects are considered victims," he said. Levi helped establish an settler outpost near Umm al-Khair that anti-settlement activists say is a bastion for violent settlers who have displaced hundreds since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence, which has surged since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, along with attacks by Palestinians. In a 2024 interview, Levi said he was protecting his own land and denied using violence. Some 70 women in Umm al-Khair said they were beginning a hunger strike on Friday to call for Hathaleen's body to be returned and for the right of his family to bury him in the village. Israel's military said in a statement to the AP that it would return the body if the family agrees to bury him in the 'nearest authorized cemetery." Hathaleen, 31, had written and spoke out against settler violence, and had helped produce the Oscar-winning film. Supporters have erected murals in his honor in Rome, held vigils in New York and have held signs bearing his name at anti-war protests in Tel Aviv.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
An injured Ukrainian soldier was stuck behind enemy lines for days. He escaped on an e-bike airdropped by a drone
An injured Ukrainian soldier stuck behind enemy lines for days was rescued after being delivered an e-bike by a drone. A video of the dramatic rescue showed a UAV drone airdropping the 40kg bike down to the wounded man, who was surrounded by Russian forces, before he cycles away. The soldier's Rubizh brigade said three men were killed by enemy fire during a skirmish in Siversk, northern Ukraine, leaving the soldier on his own for five days. In a video the soldier, call sign 'Tanker', said: 'Our drones covered us from above as best as they could. Then they threw two gas cylinders straight into our hole and a lighter. We caught fire. 'Every day, I was surrounded, from all sides. I fought back as best I could.' Brigade commander Mykola Hrytsenko explained the challenges they faced in trying to rescue their stranded comrade. 'The enemy was in front, behind, and on both flanks, completely surrounded,' the commander said. 'It was impossible to drive up with equipment because the enemy was everywhere. He couldn't get out on his own either, because he had to walk 1.5km to the nearest position. 'In his condition, with his injuries, he simply wouldn't have made it.' The brigade then came up with the bold plan to deliver a vehicle to him by drone. The first two attempts to fly the bike in failed, with Russian forces shooting the first out of the sky and the second crashing. They managed to get the bike to the soldier on the third attempt - but his ordeal was not over yet. After fleeing 400m he hit a remote mine. Tank limped a further 200m with a leg injury before he was rescued. A second e-bike was then delivered, which he rode for 15 minutes to an evacuation point. 'To carry out this operation, they had to calculate the right time of day, the right weather conditions that would allow him to do it,' Cmndr Hrytsenko added. Reports of the rescue effort emerged after Vladimir Putin's forces launched a wave of missile attacks on the capital Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, killing 16 people, including a six-year-old boy and his mother. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky urged his allies to bring about "regime change" in Russia following the attack. 'If the world doesn't aim to change the regime in Russia, that means even after the war ends, Moscow will still try to destabilise neighbouring countries," he said. "Today the world has once again seen Russia's response to our desire for peace ... Therefore, peace without strength is impossible," the Ukrainian president added.
