现场直播如何炸俄骑兵

Credit: X/@bayraktar_1love

Russia has sent the cavalry to the front line in its latest low-tech attempt to claim land in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

Video footage shared by Ukraine’s 92nd Brigade shows drones hunting down Russian soldiers as they race through an open field on horseback.

In the clip, a Russian soldier is seen riding as a drone tracks his movement. Moments later, the drone strikes, hitting the soldier as he attempts to escape. The explosion spooks another horse, which unseats its rider before making a charge in another direction. A third rider is seen, but his fate is unknown.

 

 

“Russian occupiers lose so much equipment during their ‘meat-grinder assaults’ that they’re forced to move on horseback,” the 92nd Brigade wrote in a post accompanying the footage.

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has been defined by rapid technological advances on the front lines, in particular in drone warfare. Small, off-the-shelf explosive drones have proved effective at defending against mechanised units and infantry.

Russia recently introduced motorbikes and all-terrain vehicles as a way to speed across open countryside monitored by drones.

The moment a drone locks on to its target in eastern Ukraine

Horses could offer yet more flexibility – agile on off-road terrain and less likely to trigger modern landmines equipped with magnetic sensors. The first horse-mounted casualty was reported by observers of the war in Ukraine in October.

 

 

At the same time, The Telegraph reported that the Storm unit of Russia’s 9th Brigade of the 51st Army had been preparing horse-mounted assault teams to operate in the Donetsk region.

Before this, there had been numerous reports of Russia utilising donkeys, horses and even camels to transport ammunition and other heavy equipment to the front line through muddy conditions not suitable for regular vehicles.

 

Throughout the ages, horseback cavalry charges have provided speed, shock and flexibility on the battlefield.

Tanks and other heavily-armoured fighting machines are rarely seen on the battlefields of Ukraine and, when they do appear, they are almost instantly disabled by a wave of drones.

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said of the return of cavalry: “In armed conflicts that have become arenas for showcasing technological innovations, participants are once again forced to rely on basic tools – from analogue telephone lines to pack animals and carts – when modern technologies prove vulnerable.”