Russia’s new tactics push Ukraine to rethink defense — Rubizh Brigade

Andrii Otchenash, UAV crew commander from the 4th Operational Brigade Rubizh of the National Guard of Ukraine, said this on Espreso TV.

"Our brigade is currently defending in three sectors — Siversk, Lyman, and Pokrovsk. We confidently hold our positions and do not allow the Russians to cross our legitimate lines. The situation remains tense; Russian troops constantly try to storm us. Recently, for the first time in a long while, they launched an assault involving a certain amount of equipment and personnel. This entire group was destroyed," Otchenash emphasized.

According to him, the Russians are now primarily relying on motorcycle assaults. Over the past six months, Russian invaders have somewhat changed their assault tactics.

"The Russians try to suppress our firepower and positions where our pilots operate and use motorcycles to break through as deeply as possible, creating a kind of blitzkrieg. The idea is to bypass the front line, secure the rear, and then expand the foothold.

In most cases, this tactic doesn’t work: essentially, they surround themselves. They ride into our positions, get trapped in a kind of ring, and are destroyed there. But because it happens quickly on motorcycles, the enemy sometimes manages to advance in certain directions," the commander noted.

Otchenash added that the Russians have improved their tactics.

“Since they don’t care about losses, they send 10–20 motorcycles into battle. For them, this is normal. Even if 17 are destroyed, but 3 get through and secure a foothold, they consider it a success.

This new tactic forces us to conduct defensive operations differently. For example, to destroy 20 motorcycles with infantry, we now need 20–30 FPV drones instead of just one or two. This is more complicated and expensive than hitting a single tank, which is easier to detect and destroy with far fewer drones,” Otchenash concluded.

• On June 12, 209 combat clashes were recorded on the Russian-Ukrainian front. In the Pokrovsk sector, Ukrainian defenders repelled 66 Russian assaults.