Bridge too far: ‘1,000 Moscow troops’wiped out in river ambush
VLADIMIR Putin has suffered more battlefield humiliations, including 58 military vehicles wiped out in an ambush.
Ukrainian forces thwarted an entire Russian battalion’s attempts to cross a river in the eastern Donbas region.
Satellite images showed remains of two pontoon bridges in the Siverskyi Donets River west of the city of Lysychansk, surrounded by ruined tanks and armoured vehicles. It appears Russian commanders were attempting to surround Lysychansk and its sister city Severodonetsk. Unconfirmed Ukrainian estimates put the invaders’ losses at 1,000 troops – almost an entire battalion. Russian forces have since managed to cross the river, unconfirmed reports last night suggested.
It comes after Kyiv’s forces pushed back invading troops trying to seize the country’s second city of Kharkiv. Ukraine’s generals said the Kremlin’s offensive in the Donbas has now largely stalled.
Maxim, a Twitter user claiming to be a Ukrainian military engineer, said he had identified the spot where Russia was most likely to try to cross the river on May 7.
He told commanders to listen for tugboat engines. The next morning Russia blanketed the river with smoke but the Ukrainians heard the boats and called in artillery. Maxim said: ‘Some Russian forces... were stuck on the Ukrainian side of the river with no way back. They tried to run away using the broken bridge. Then they tried to arrange a new bridge.’ He said air forces then ‘destroyed’ remaining Russians and their objective to encircle Lysychansk ‘miserably failed’.
Online observers have so far counted 58 destroyed vehicles, including at least seven tanks. Two pontoon bridges appear to be left with shell holes in them.
On Wednesday evening Ukraine’s commanders said north of Kharkiv, ‘occupying forces moved to the defence’. With no major attacks seen in Izyum, or in Mykolaiv in the south, it means the only section of front line still active is Severodonetsk, near the ambush, Donetsk and Mariupol.