According to the Ukrainian military, Russian forces are testing a new tactic of massive attacks involving several hundred soldiers on the battlefield, as Kiev prepares for a new offensive by its significantly stronger opponent, with whom it has been waging a full-scale war for more than three years, Reuters reported.
The change signals a possible abandonment of the tactic that Russia has relied on for more than two years, sending small groups of infantry to slowly penetrate Ukrainian lines.
Earlier today, Ukraine's Southern Military Command released a video of a Russian attack, in which it said 320 people and 40 armored vehicles took part, near several villages along the southern front line in the Zaporizhia region. The report said the attack took place last night and lasted about two and a half hours before being repelled, noting that the Russians suffered heavy casualties. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Russia's tactic of attacking with small, lightly armed infantry units is itself an evolution from the way Moscow fought at the beginning of the war, when its huge armored columns suffered heavy losses from fast-moving Ukrainian units.
The increased use of massed drone attacks, which can hit targets much more accurately than mortars or artillery, has also made the use of armored vehicles much more difficult.
"Approximately 5 to 7 people were preparing for these attacks, doing so-called "They were trying to get as far as possible with these groups of infantry," Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Voloshin said of Russia's tactics in recent months. He said that about ten such attacks were being carried out in a single day in this section of the front line in the Zaporizhia region.
He said that in addition to yesterday's massive attack, the Russians had carried out a similar large attack on Sunday. "Whole assault platoons were going forward, which then tried to disperse into assault groups. "Each assault group was carrying out its task, trying to seize one of our positions," he added.
Ukraine's National Guard Commander Oleksandr Pivnenko said earlier today that one of his brigades had repelled a major attack involving armored vehicles and hundreds of infantrymen on another part of the front line near the town of Pokrovsk, around which fighting continues.