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Ukraine update: The obscure, unheralded weapon that won the Battle of Vuhledar [1]

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Date: 2023-02-13  

The area around Vuhledar has been a graveyard for Russia’s supposedly elite naval infantry since last November, when they got smacked on their way to taking the nearby town of Pavlivka. Eventually, Ukraine retreated from Pavlivka, but only because Vuhledar sits on high ground overlooking a valley. It was just easier to defend. Pavlivka is gray territory these days, sitting empty.

Unlike Bakhmut, Vuhledar has actual strategic value because of, you guessed it, logistics. From that perch, Ukraine has fire control over key Russian supply lines in the “land bridge” connecting mainland Russia to Crimea.

x A small repetition of why Vuhledar is important for the Russians.

At the moment AFU have the Volnovakha-Donetsk railroad and H20 high way in artillery range. This affects the RU logistics from the eastern direction negatively. pic.twitter.com/KRLa00dDRV — Def Mon (@DefMon3) January 26, 2023

After reportedly reconstituting those naval decimated infantry units three times, Russia launched a new operation to take Vuhledar in late January. The results were the same. But thing is, repeated disaster hasn’t dissuaded Russia from trying, and trying again. In fact, Vuhledar is currently the hottest part of the front. Though, unlike Bakhmut, the heat is all being felt by just one side. The biggest reason? Mines. And not the mines we’re used to seeing, buried by engineers along suspected approaches.

x The Russian offensive in the Vuhledar area is failing because the Ukrainians conduct a brilliant defence while the invaders use the worst tactics imaginable.



Observe how Russian tanks and armoured vehicles blow themselves up when they encounter a dense, Ukrainian-laid minefield. pic.twitter.com/q0RMuIpCoe — Michael MacKay (@mhmck) February 12, 2023

Yes, Ukraine is flooding that approach with artillery and guided anti-tank missiles. But in video after Vuhledar video, most of the damage is being done by simple land mines. And therein lies the key to Vuhledar’s defense—a weapon the U.S. has been delivering for some time with absolutely zero fanfare.

Look at the Jan. 6 aid package from the United States:

1,200 155mm rounds of Remote Anti-Armor Mine (RAAM) Systems;

Or the one from Oct. 4:

1,000 155mm rounds of Remote Anti-Armor Mine (RAAM) Systems;

And Oct. 14:

5,000 155mm rounds of Remote Anti-Armor Mine (RAAM) Systems;

Looking at past aid packages, it seems Ukraine first got them in September of last year, yet neither Mark Sumner nor I have ever dwelled on those, focusing on sexier line items like HIMARS ammunition, M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, or TANKS. So what are these RAAM systems?

They are a 155mm artillery shell with 9 anti-tank mines crammed inside. The shell is fired over a field. An airburst fuse pops the case open in the air, thus scattering the nine mines to the ground below.

This means that defenders can mine wide approaches without exposing engineers to enemy fire on dangerous missions to lay the mines. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing in Vuhledar. I shared one video above. Here’s another:

x It’s not the Groundhog Day. Just Russians mine-clearing the area with their MBTs and trying to find every single mine placed by Ukrainian troops near Vuhledar.



I have not enough hands to facepalm this. #Ukraine #Vuhledar pic.twitter.com/pw9oFNykNs — (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) February 12, 2023

And another:

x Russian tanks drove into a minefield(?). A Russian tanker is on fire, the tank was blown up by an anti-tank mine. 72nd brigade stopped Russian advance. Vuhledar. by @auto_glam pic.twitter.com/IcnjPdBsoV — Paul Jawin (@PaulJawin) February 6, 2023

Russian sources have confirmed that it is, indeed, those RAAMs that are doing the damage:

x Starting to get a bit more clarity on why Russian assaults are running into so many minefields. Earlier today, a Russian Wagner associated telegram account posted photos of several US-supplied Ukrainian M70 Remote Anti-armour Mines (RAAM), which are deployed via 155mm artillery. https://t.co/DMuWaqbT9T pic.twitter.com/vGmSeazIkm — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) February 11, 2023

They are only 12cm x 6cm, with 1.8 kgs of explosives in them. In inches, that’s 4.7’ x 2.35’, and 4 lbs of explosives. Those little guys sure do pack a punch! Russian sources note that these vehicles were destroyed on routes that had already been supposedly cleared by combat engineers. That’s the beauty of these rounds—Ukraine can plug any hole immediately.

Russia has reported seeing them around the entire front lines, from Kreminna-Svatove up north, all the way down to here. Undoubtedly more have been laid on the approach to Zaporizhzhia, in case Russia tries to advance in that direction.

Yesterday, Russia resumed its attacks on Vuhledar, but this time, they lacked armor. Just like around Bakhmut, Russia attacked with human waves of hapless infantry.

x Judging from that video Russians in Vuhledar have switched to human wave tactics. No armored vehicles are covering this attack. #Vuhledar #Donetsk #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/rDlONgfAjV — (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) February 12, 2023

Either they ran out of armored vehicles after losing dozens in the last week or so, or they are so afraid of these small RAAMs that they’d rather kill off their remaining infantry than lose more vehicles attempting to protect them.

Amazing what those little guys have done to crush what was supposed to be Russia’s big winter offensive. Still, don’t celebrate just yet! Who knows what else Russia might have ready to go. But as of now, everything has fizzled.

It’s been fun watching Russian war blogger Rybar try to spin the Vuhledar disaster. The lede is delicious:

Regardless of whose equipment it was, the incident is an extremely tragic and unpleasant episode, comparable to the losses of columns in Bilohorivka, Brovary, north of Popasna, and in the Kherson Region.

It’s Rybar, Russian media, so there’s some silliness as usual, claiming that the battle began when “the Russian Armed Forces took the enemy by surprise: during intense fighting, they advanced to the settlement.”

In the age of satellite surveillance and drones, the idea that an armored column could take Ukraine by surprise is patently absurd. There is no evidence that Russian forces ever made it anywhere into Vuhledar, and quite to the contrary, lots of evidence that they were stopped by the aforementioned minefields and other ambushes. Vuhledar literally has tall apartment buildings bristling with anti-tank crews overlooking the vast open approaches.

Nothing is sneaking up on Vuhledar (the town outlined in red, surrounded by open fields)

Russian artillery has been working to reduce those high-rises to rubble:

x Russian terrorist army has totally destroyed Vuhledar (Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine) during the incessant attacks on the town.#Ukraine #UkraineRussianWar #Russia #RussiaIsATerroristState pic.twitter.com/CstDziuWzD — BREAKING NEWS: UKRAINE (@MrFukkew) February 13, 2023

This picture is unbelievable. You can see those tall apartment buildings at the edge of town, giving Ukrainian defenders a clear view of the surrounding area.

x 📷Ukrainian #Vuhledar. The cottage area east of the town has been completely leveled. #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/SnblBtz5th — MilitaryLand.net (@Militarylandnet) February 13, 2023

The “cottage area” is also referred to as the “dachas.” This was a residential single-family home neighborhood, as opposed to the apartment buildings on the west side. Russia did, at some point, reportedly reach the dachas, and the area was home to fierce fighting, but it’s considered a gray zone now, occupied by no one. Rybar notes in its writeup the importance of remote mines in the city’s defense:

Remote mining of streets and approaches continued – almost all the fields were covered with mines even before the Russian offensive, and during the week of fighting the Ukrainian Armed Forces installed over a hundred more barriers.

Rybar claims hundreds of Ukrainian losses in its failed attacks, which … whatever. Maybe, maybe not. Probably not. It’s an interesting alternate view of the battle; even if mostly fictional, elements of truth are likely embedded. And in the end, they admit what we all see in the videos above:

The delayed engagement of the motorized rifle units and the ensuing destruction of the convoy was only possible because of the overall unpreparedness of the infantrymen who were engaged in the battle. Mass mining of the approaches and inadequate use of all available electronic warfare [to suppress surveillance drones] means led to the predictable result of a rather narrow mine-free breach, into which the column of armored vehicles plunged. Their entire route was tracked by UAVs and shot through by artillery and anti-tank crews.

This story has a happy ending, and we’re seeing much of the same with Russia’s other offensive attempts at this time. However, there is a cautionary tale here—Ukraine would face exactly the same challenges when it eventually launches its next major counteroffensive.

Breaching open fields, against well-prepared defenses, under drone surveillance the entire time, through minefields, and under intense artillery barrage is brutally difficult, and will be bloody. This is why combined-arms warfare is so critical, it’s why the U.S. is currently training Ukrainians in it in Germany, and why it will take months more to drill the troops to execute this complicated choreography.

It takes a lot to go from what Russia disastrously attempted in Vuhledar, to a competent combined-arms breach like this:

We’re going to have to be patient.

Markos and Kerry are joined by University of St. Andrews Professor of Strategic Studies, Phillips P. O’Brien. O’Brien, an expert in military history, explains how we got to where we are right now, what is unique about the world’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the parallels between the conservative movement’s isolationism in World War II and now.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/13/2152710/-Ukraine-update-The-obscure-unheralded-weapon-that-won-the-Battle-of-Vuhledar

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