Ukrainian forces are battling a Russian assault on the village of Vorone, just east of the town of Velykomykhailivka in southern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Luckily for them, they’re rolling into the fight in American-made M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles—some of the best IFVs in Russia’s 42-month wider war on Ukraine.
A video that circulated online on Monday depicts two of the 33-ton, 10-person Bradleys—belonging to the 225th Assault Regiment—rolling along a paved road in or near Vorone, firing left and right with their 25-millimeter auto-cannons at Russian infantry clinging to positions in the treelines along the road.
The Russian 5th Tank Brigade recently claimed it captured Vorone. But the 225th Assault Regiment obviously isn’t ready to give up the village.
The M-2 excels at that kind of fighting evident in Vorone. Even Russian engineers, who have inspected several captured Ukrainian Bradleys, have praised the American-made vehicle. Compared to Russian-made fighting vehicles, the M-2 boasts superior firepower owing to “the accuracy of the 25-millimeter M242 automatic cannon,” the Russians wrote in an April report.
The Bradley is one of Ukraine’s best vehicles for close combat, but it’s in short supply. The Ukrainian army has six battalions that ride in M-2s. On paper, each has 31 Bradleys. But the army only got, for free, somewhat more than 300 M-2s from the administration of former US Pres. Joe Biden before the administration of Pres. Donald Trump throttled US aid to Ukraine.
Of those 300-plus M-2s, the Ukrainians have lost no fewer than 108: 95 destroyed and 13 captured. Crews have abandoned others in places where Ukrainian engineers couldn’t recover them. Dozens are badly damaged. Between them, those six Bradley battalions need 186 vehicles. If there isn’t already a shortfall, there could be soon.
But the 225th Assault Regiment is clearly willing to risk some of its Bradleys if that means blunting the Russian 5th Tank Brigade’s advance.
Over-extended Russians
It’s clear the Russians have pushed too far, too fast in recent weeks. And it’s clear why. Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin was desperate to project strength in the lead-up to his Aug. 15 summit with US Pres. Donald Trump in Alaska.
To Russia’s 700,000-person army of occupation in Ukraine attacked aggressively, some might say recklessly, all along the 1,100-km front line—ultimately breaking through Ukrainian lines northeast of the fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
That effort backfired. The Russian 51st Combined Arms Army failed to support its infantry marching through undermanned Ukrainian trenches outside Pokrovsk, leaving the Russian salient vulnerable to counterattack.
“Russia way over-extended,” American analyst Andrew Perpetua explained. Sensing Russian weakness in several other eastern and southern sectors in addition to Pokrovsk, the Ukrainians counterattacked in recent days. In Vorone, however, the 225th Assault Regiment and its Bradley crews are apparently still trying to just halt the Russians.
Still, that’s consistent with Ukraine’s overall strategy right now. Kyiv’s priority, Perpetua wrote, is “stability.” “Stabilize the front, retake certain positions, reinforce others. Widen the gray zone in others.”
To protect them as they push back against Russian attacks, some Ukrainian units have been adding even more additional armor to their M-2s. A recent photo of a Bradley operated by the 33rd Assault Regiment, holding the line against Russian incursion in northern Ukraine, might depict the most heavily-armored M-2 in Ukrainian service.
It boasts its normal aluminum armor and side-mounted explosive reactive armor blocks. The Ukrainians added a telescoping anti-drone screen, metal anti-drone grills along the hull and rubber mats on the hull front and beside the driver’s hatch. Incredibly, there are also tiny mesh installations plugging the gaps between the metal racks for the side-mounted explosive blocks and the aluminum hull.
