A platoon of 70-year-old Russian “museum-grade” GAZ-69 trucks was wiped out during their first combat assault on Ukrainian positions near Bilohorivka, Luhansk Oblast, Forbes reports. The attack, which occurred on 10 April, is emblematic of Russia’s accelerating military de-mechanization.
Ukrainian drone operators from the Abwehr Gruppe team, part of the 81st Air Mobile Brigade, successfully intercepted the vintage vehicles at the juncture of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts in eastern Ukraine.
“No one arrived, no one reached” Ukrainian positions, the Abwehr Gruppe reported after the engagement.
The 1,500-kg, four-wheel-drive GAZ-69s, manufactured at Moscow’s Molotov plant between 1952 and 1972, had only recently appeared in significant numbers along the front line. Open-source intelligence analyst Moklasen had predicted such an assault on 1 April, noting,
“We are an inch away from the GAZ-69 sturm.“
These museum-grade trucks offer virtually no protection for their occupants, with some units attempting to improve survivability by welding makeshift anti-drone cages to the vehicles.
The engagement shows why Russia’s numerically superior force in eastern Ukraine, potentially exceeding half a million troops, has struggled to make significant territorial gains.
“What was once one of the world’s great mechanized armies is de-mechanizing at a rapid pace,” Forbes wrote.