Moment UKR Forces Ambush and Annihilate Column of RU Tanks: ‘Absolute carnage’; This Ambush Shows How UKR Is Holding the Line; UKR Kills 1,070 RU Soldiers, Destroys 25 Arm Combat Vehicles, 10 Tanks,74 Combat Engagements-Past Day, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

NY POST: Moment Ukrainian forces ambush and annihilate column of Russia tanks: ‘Absolute carnage’:

Chilling footage shows the moment Ukrainian forces ambushed a column of Russian tanks — deploying a lethal combination of missiles, armored drones, landmines and machine-gun fire to annihilate the enemy.

Members of the Ukraine’s 30th Mechanized Brigade were recently lying in wait near the village of Synkivka, about 5 miles northwest of the strategically important city of Kupyansk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, when two Russian main battle line tanks and two armored personnel carriers drove right into their trap.

The drone footage shared by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on X earlier this month shows the enemy vehicles making their way through a mined kill zone littered with the scorched remnants of Russian military equipment that had been used in at least half a dozen previous failed offensives in the area.

As the lead Russian tank makes its way past a thicket of bare trees lining the pathway, it is struck by a Ukrainian antitank missile and explodes into a fireball, sending clouds of thick, black smoke rising into the air.

The remaining Russian vehicles in the doomed column try to backtrack, but the Ukrainians swiftly cut off their retreat by blasting the rear armored personnel carrier with an armed drone.

As smoke pours out of the disabled vehicle, Russian troops emerge from the interior and flee toward the tree line.

The two still-intact vehicles, left as sitting ducks in the exposed no man’s land, desperately try to get away from the ambush — but in their hasty flight drive over landmines and burst into flames.

The Ukrainians then deployed cluster munitions against the decimated column, sending Moscow’s soldiers running for their lives. It was not immediately clear from the video how many combatants were killed or wounded.

“A typical day for the Russian occupiers in Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry gloated in an X post accompanying the footage, which was set to a humorous Italian gibberish song from a 1981 Soviet cartoon. —>READ MORE HERE

WSJ: This Ambush Shows How Ukraine Is Holding the Line:

Russian attempts to break through are largely being thwarted by well-prepared defenses

As the column of Russian armored vehicles emerged from a forest in northeastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian unit was waiting to launch the kind of ambush that is helping resist Russian efforts to grab more chunks of territory.

The four Russian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles followed a narrow path through a minefield, past the charred remains of other Russian machines that had tried and failed to reach the small village of Synkivka before them.

Then, the Ukrainians struck. An antitank missile slammed into the lead vehicle. The rest of the column kept advancing anyway. By the time they decided to backtrack, it was too late. A Ukrainian drone dropped explosives on the rear vehicle, blocking the escape of the two surviving machines. Infantry bailed out of the vehicles and made for a clump of bare trees offering scant cover from explosives dropped by drones that swooped in. Maneuvering desperately to get away, the two remaining vehicles triggered mines. Cluster munitions rained down around them.

It is well-laid defenses such as these that are inflicting heavy losses on Russian forces seeking a breakthrough as the war approaches its third year. The rout, captured on film by a Ukrainian drone, was all in a day’s work for the 2nd Battalion of Ukraine’s 30th Mechanized Brigade, the unit’s commander said. The Wall Street Journal reviewed raw footage of the battle and spoke to the commander of the battalion and open-source intelligence analysts who analyzed Russia’s moves.

“We were prepared,” said the commander, who oversaw the battle on a screen in a nearby bunker.

His battalion has been fending off daily attacks like this one since Russian forces went on the offensive last fall. So far, they have made little progress toward their aim of seizing Synkivka, which would put them closer to the city of Kupyansk.

The meager gains demonstrate how hard it is to break through a front line that has hardly moved over the past year. Ukrainian forces are largely holding the line, even as their enemy enjoys a growing advantage in artillery. With Western support in question, Russia’s sheer size might enable it to grind through Ukrainian defenses.

But after successfully thwarting Kyiv’s counteroffensive over the summer, Russia is struggling to overcome many of the same obstacles that prevented Ukrainian forces from gaining significant ground. Dense minefields funnel advancing troops into enemy crosshairs. The proliferation of surveillance drones has made attempts to breach enemy lines near impossible. On a battlefield where everything is visible, an attacker can’t catch his enemy off guard, while tanks and other armored vehicles become easy targets.

That means that 2024 looks like a year in which any advances will be slow and costly, while both sides look to rebuild their forces with additional manpower and new equipment. —>READ MOR HERE (OR HERE)

Follow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:

+++++Russia-Ukraine News LATEST UPDATES: (REUTERS) (AP) (NY POST) and (WSJ)+++++

+++++Ukrainian forces kill 1,070 Russian soldiers and destroy 25 armoured combat vehicles and 10 tanks+++++

+++++74 combat engagements with Russians took place over the last day – General Staff +++++

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