Latest news with #BMP-3
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First Post
21-04-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Russia used 'Easter truce' to improve frontline positions, says Ukraine
In the cover of the so-called Easter ceasefire, Russian military moved heavy equipment to beef up its presence on the frontlines in at least two theatres, according to Ukrainian military read more Russia's soldiers members board a BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle during tactical combat exercises held by a motorised rifle division at the Kadamovsky range in the Rostov region, Russia December 10, 2021. (Photo: Reuters) Russia used the so-called Easter ceasefire to boost its military's positions along the frontlines in the war with Russia, according to the Ukrainian military. Last week, Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered a unilateral ceasefire from 6 pm Moscow time (3:00 pm GMT) on April 19 to midnight (9 pm GMT) on April 21. Once the ceasefire expired, the Kremlin said that it has not been renewed. During the ceasefire, Ukraine accused Russia of continuing attacks along the frontlines and said that no ceasefire was observed at all in Kursk. On its part, Russia also accused Ukraine of violating the ceasefire. Advertisement Russia moved heavy equipment during truce, says Ukraine Russia used the cover of truce to move more soldiers to the frontlines in the Kharkiv theatre in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine's Khartiia Brigade told The Daily Telegraph. Separately, the newspaper reported a different unit as saying that Russia was 'preparing routes for the passage of heavy equipment' across the Black Stallion River in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. Moreover, the 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade said that Russia launched drone strikes against its positions and that aerial reconnaissance spotted machine guns being moved towards the front line by Russian personnel. Such accounts by Ukrainian military is in line with the well-known Russian practice of using negotiations and brief ceasefires to buy time to bolster the positions on the battlefield. Amid reports from Ukranine of Russia never ceasing attacks during the so-called ceasefire, The Telegraph reported analysts as saying that such an announcement by Putin was an attempt to score an easy diplomatic victory with the Donald Trump administration of the United States. Putin's declaration of the ceasefire came shortly after the Trump administration announced it could soon end efforts to bring the war to an end. So far, three US-endorsed ceasefire proposals have been floated and Russia has rejected all of them. Ukraine has accepted all of them. Yet the Trump administration continues to bash Ukraine, falsely blaming President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the war, and put no pressure on Russia. Advertisement Russia launched 2,935 attacks on Easter, says Zelenskyy Russia conducted a total of 2,935 attacks on Easter on Sunday, according to Zelenskyy. In a post on X, Zelenskyy said that there were 96 Russian assaults, 1,882 instances of shelling on our positions, including 812 involving heavy weaponry, and over 950 instances of drones. Most of the attacks were carried out in the area around Pokrovsk and no ceasefire was in effect in the Kursk region, according to Zelenskyy. Previously, Zelenskyy had said that the Easter ceasefire should be extended to 30 days. However, Putin refused to extend the ceasefire. Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine would work on the basis of symetry where Russian attacks would be met with attacks and ceasefire would be met with ceasefire. The Ukrainian army is acting –and will continue to act– in a fully symmetrical manner. This Easter has clearly demonstrated that the only source of this war, and the reason it drags on, is Russia. We are ready to move toward peace and a full, unconditional, and honest ceasefire that could last for at least 30 days – but there has been no response from Russia on that so far. The situation on the frontline shows that pressure on Moscow and real oversight of the actions of the occupying forces are needed for the ceasefire to be established," said Zelenskyy. Advertisement
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Russians captured a US Bradley, and now they really want their own
The Russians have gotten a closeup look at an M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and seem to like it better than their own armored vehicles. The Bradley offers more protection and can fire more accurately than its Russian equivalent, the BMP-3, according to a Russian report that was leaked onto a Telegram channel earlier this month. Experts told Task & Purpose that the report appears to be legitimate. The United States began providing Ukraine with Bradleys in January 2023. The following year, drone video emerged showing two Ukrainian Bradley Fighting Vehicles scoring hit after hit against a Russian T-90 tank with their 25mm cannons. The captured M2A2 may have allowed the Russians to use live ammunition against a Bradley in testing for the first time, said Steven Zaloga, an expert on Russian and Soviet armor. Finding out the Bradley is better than the BMP-3 should not have been a surprise to the Russians, as reports about the Bradley's operational performance are readily available, said retired Marine Col. J.D. Williams, of the RAND Corporation. 'Having an actual vehicle does enable the Russians to confirm those reports (they may have been skeptical of the reporting and attributed some of those reports to western propaganda) and to understand the detailed materials and construction of the various components, in particular the armor protection, optics, and combat systems,' Williams told Task & Purpose in an email. The differences between the Bradley and BMP-3 represent how the U.S. and Russian philosophies diverge, Williams said. First, the Soviets and then the Russians built their fighting vehicles under the assumption that they would lose many of them in battle, so they emphasized firepower over crew protection. The Bradley may have a better main gun than the BMP-3, but the Russian vehicle has more weapons available, he said. 'Fielding a large number of vehicles that were easy to operate and had a lot of firepower was more important than having a smaller number of high-end systems,' Williams said. 'Other deficiencies highlighted in the report reflect long-standing Russian limitations in development and fielding of technical or precision components like electronics, optics, and combat systems that give the Bradley a huge advantage in battlefield performance.' However, the Russian analysis of the Bradley vs. the BMP-3 was not entirely one-sided, said retired Marine Col. Mark Cancian, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C. The Russians did find that the Bradley had more protection against mines, bullets, and projectiles, and they have more space for crews, Cancian told Task & Purpose. But the report also found that the BMP-3 is better than the Bradley in other areas, such as its ability to float, and the BMP-3s also have more firepower, including a 100mm gun and 30mm autocannon, Cancian said. Navy fires commanding officer, command master chief of expeditionary security squadron The Marine Corps has settled the debate over the size of a rifle squad Leg day: Army cuts down on number of paid parachutists Navy commissions its newest submarine, the USS Iowa Why veterans are the real target audience for 'Helldivers 2'
Forbes
24-03-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
A Lot More Russian Troops Are Attacking In Compact Cars, Vans And Golf Carts
A drone strike on an assault Lada. Ukrainian defense ministry capture. Armored trucks and civilian vehicles such as vans, compact cars and all-terrain vehicles—that is, golf carts—now account for around 70 percent of Russian losses, according to one recent survey. But the growing proportion of civilian-style vehicles in the wreckage of Russia's 37-month wider war on Ukraine doesn't mean there are fewer Russian tanks and fighting vehicles—the traditional mounts for mechanized troops—along the 700-mile front line. No, there are actually more destroyed and abandoned tanks and fighting vehicles dotting the line of contact today than there were a year ago, even as these purpose-made armored vehicles represent a smaller proportion of Russian losses. The growing abundance of vehicles of all sorts—unarmored and armored—speaks to the intensity of the overlapping Russian offensives that have kicked off along multiple sectors in eastern Ukraine and western Russia in the last 18 months. Until recently, the Russians were attacking almost everywhere, in large numbers, in whatever vehicles they could source from official or unofficial channels. But Russian losses rose in proportion to Russian assaults, and stocks of traditional tanks and infantry fighting vehicles ran low, compelling regiments and brigades to switch to golf carts, Lada compact cars and Bukhanka vans in order to lend mobility to increasingly frequent attacks. The numbers tell the story. As illustrated by analyst Chris Jones, armored tanks and fighting vehicles accounted for around half of the roughly 375 vehicles Russia lost in February 2024. A year later this February, Russia lost around 1,100 vehicles—and 250 were tanks and fighting vehicles. Fully half of Russian losses that month were civilian vehicles or armored trucks. But the half that included tanks and fighting vehicles still represented a raw increase in the number of these vehicles appearing along the front line. A Russian soldier on horseback. VIA ANTON GERASHCHENKO Russian industry builds maybe 200 new BMP-3 fighting vehicles and 90 new T-90M tanks annually as well as a few hundred other new armored vehicles, including BTR-82 wheeled fighting vehicles. Since Russian mechanized regiments have been losing armored vehicles at an annualized rate of 6,000 a year, or 500 a month—largely to Ukrainian mines, artillery and drones—there's a shortfall. Growing desperate for battlefield mobility as early as 2022, the Russians opened up vast storage bases that once sheltered tens of thousand of obsolete Cold War vehicles. But even these old vehicles couldn't fully equip front-line regiments, given the accelerating pace of the regiments' operations. Open-source analyst Jompy explained it best in January, taking BTR wheeled fighting vehicles as a case study. 'It looks like Russia still has overall 2,358 stored BTR-60/70/80s out of the 3,673 it had in storage before the war,' Jompy wrote. Looks can be deceiving. 'In reality, most of the vehicles are older BTR-60s and -70s, and in poor condition' and all but impossible to reactivate, Jompy explained. Civilian-style vehicles were the last resort. But it was a last resort that became normal. 'I guess this Lada storming is the norm now?' open-source analyst Moklasen mused as they scrutinized yet another video feed from a Ukrainian drone unit blowing up Russian compact cars attacking Ukrainian positions in late January. Two months later, the norm is entrenched. So many Russians are attacking in so many unarmored civilian vehicles that these vehicles now account for more than two-thirds of losses. But there are still plenty of tanks and fighting vehicles in the mix. More and more, in fact.
