- Russia has placed all kinds of obstacles in the way of Ukraine's advance.
- Among them are fake trenches, exploding death traps, that a commander described to The New York Times.
Russia is trying its damnedest to thwart Ukraine's counteroffensive, and among the threats to the Ukrainian assault are fake trenches rigged with remotely detonated mines. A commander shared details of an assault team's encounter with these deadly traps in a discussion this week with The New York Times.
The Ukrainian commander, who goes by the call sign Voskres, told The Times about an offensive operation conducted last month by forces with special operations training. The mission to storm Russian positions along the front was unsuccessful, and the Ukrainians suffered heavy casualties.
The mission ran into problems right from the start. Their armored vehicles were knocked out by artillery, so the Ukrainian troops had to advance on foot.
When they reached the Russian lines after clearing part of a minefield along a tree line, Ukrainian forces dropped into a trench, ready for a fight.
"The trenches were mined," the assault commander told The Times. "Our guys started jumping in the trenches and blowing up," he said, recalling that as the Russians remotely detonated the mines that filled the trench, explosive drones attacked the survivors.
"It seemed like they had a drone for each person," he said. "The amount of equipment the Russians have, had we known, it was like mission impossible."
The assault commander's recollections from the recent battle are consistent with reporting on these fake trenches from Michael Kofman, a Russia expert at the at the Center for Naval Analyses who recently returned from a research trip to areas near the front lines in Ukraine, where he talked with members of the Ukrainian military about their experiences.
"They build out fake trenches. They have mine trenches," Kofman said of Russia in a War on the Rocks podcast discussion of the counteroffensive, explaining that they attempt to "lure Ukrainian forces into trenches that have been mined" with remote-activated mines "and then blow up the mines."
When Ukraine's "forces jump into them, they have parts of trenches that are intentionally empty," he said. The Russians are actively attempting "to get Ukrainians into those trenches to then essentially blow them up."
And if these explosive-laden trenches weren't trouble enough, they are far from the only threats the Ukrainians are facing. Russia has constructed a defense in depth consisting of various barriers and obstacles backed by infantry, artillery, and aviation. And they aren't the only trench traps either.
Video footage said to have been recorded from the Russian side near the first line of defense, for instance, shows an anti-tank ditch swallow what is believed to have been a military vehicle.
While not packed with explosives, anti-tank trenches are easily constructed barriers to armored assaults that are deep and wide and a hassle for the advancing force to clear.
Even in the face of these threats though, the Ukrainians are advancing, but progress has been slow as some assaults are blunted and even repelled. It is not a fast, sweeping offensive. Instead, it is a grinding slog coming at a very high price.