Russia’s 4th Guards Tank Division (GTD) was thought-about one in every of it’s “elite” models, headquartered close to Moscow.
The division’s models participated within the First Chechen Conflict of 1994-1996, and personnel took half in peacekeeping operations in South Ossetia throughout 1997, in Kosovo in 1998 to 2002, later collaborating within the Second Chechen Conflict of 1999-2009. Throughout this era, it was one of many Russian Military’s “fixed readiness” divisions, with not less than 80% manpower and 100% tools holdings always.
In different phrases, this unit was saved at most readiness, not like different military models pilfered and plundered for dachas and vodka. It 2008, it had 12,000 troopers, 320 tanks, armored personnel carriers, 130 howitzer artillery, and 12 GRAD rocket artillery. In 2012, Russia did away with the divisions as its essential maneuver unit, changed with Battalion Tactical Teams, largely, due to the good grift alternatives they supplied. (They’ve confirmed woefully insufficient for his or her activity.) Nonetheless, for no matter purpose, Russia rebuilt the division in 2015, outfitting it with 228 battle tanks, 300 armored personnel carriers, 90 artillery weapons, and 19 MLRS GRAD rocket artillery.
This was probably the greatest funded and geared up models in your entire Russian Military, with their newest technology armor. The construction of the division would theoretically render it extra proof against the form of rampant grift that affected BTGs. This factor was fearful, designed to punch by means of enemy traces and wreak havoc within the enemy’s rear. And that’s precisely what 4 GTD tried to do exactly this previous weekend.
Deployed within the Sumy axis, in between that metropolis and Kharkiv, the 4th GTD punched deep, getting so far as Myrhorod:
The primary contact with Myrhorod was March 9, with Ukrainian forces repelling the assault. It was the primary sighting of Russia’s most trendy tanks on the Ukrainian battlefield. A minimum of three deserted T80Us are seen deserted on this video.
The tweet says “extra deserted …” which implies Ukraine captured or destroyed much more of them. Over the subsequent two days, Ukrainian forces hacked away on the division, forcing its retreat again towards the course it got here. In simply two days, the division misplaced round 50 of its tanks. It was straightforward to trace as a result of 4th GTD was the one unit in your entire Russian Military to have T80Us. And so as to add insult to Russia’s harm, most of those had been deserted, not destroyed. Of the 46 T-80Us in Oryx’s database of visually verified Russian tools losses, 38 had been captured, and solely 4 appeared destroyed in fight. (The remainder had been deserted and destroyed by locals.) Different T-80 variants within the Oryx database present related charges of captured-to-destroyed.
Regardless, the division had misplaced round 50 of its tanks out of 228, so issues received quiet for the 4th GTD. From all indications, they arrange store in Trostyanets, the place their howitzer and rocket artillery may pummel Sumy. And so it was till this weekend, when Ukrainian forces swept into city, basically wiping the division off the face of the map.
I wrote in regards to the assault on Saturday, nonetheless not fairly understanding how monumental the victory was. Preliminary stories mentioned “dozens” of Russian autos had been captured or destroyed, however you all the time account for a bit hyperbole in these issues. Properly, visible affirmation has been streaming out over the previous few days, and it’s … voluminous.
Listed here are hyperlinks to captured and destroyed tools: here, here, here, here, here, here (ammo cache), here (GRAD ammo), here, here, here, here (pontoon bridge layer), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The claims of “dozens” of autos may really be true. In all, Oryx has documented 77 destroyed T-80 variants, which is a 3rd of your entire divisions. And keep in mind, these are simply visually confirmed losses. That’s the baseline quantity. And on prime of that, dozens of Russians surrendered.
Stories state that the remnants of Russia’s forces within the area have retreated to the opposite aspect of their border. Possible, they’ll attempt to salvage what survived, and “reconstitute” the unit, both by reinforcing it with conscripts and remnants of different shattered models, or uncooked conscripts. Both approach, the divisions best days are behind it. Because of this, Russia has misplaced one in every of its most succesful models, with its most trendy tools. Moreover, it misplaced a base of assault to rain demise and distress from above on Sumy. And it opened roads from Sumy to Poltava to its south, breaking the siege of that metropolis, permitting it to be resupplied. And for added satisfaction, right here’s what its destruction means on the map:
All that pink territory between Sumy and Kharkiv, within the map above, is gone. That large chunk of land south of Sumy has been cleansed, as Russia’s greatest couldn’t take these two cities on Russia’s personal border. How pathetic is that? Ukrainian forces are doubtless conducting mop-up operations in that remaining orange territory, however on condition that Russia doesn’t maintain any cities in that space, odds are good that Sumy’s provide traces to Poltava are safe in the intervening time.
The scope of 4th GTD’s destruction is so huge, the evisceration so full, that you simply’d suppose Ukraine massed a substantial pressure to take it out. But no particulars have been forthcoming. Ukrainian Normal Workers doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to element its profitable methods to Russian generals. Even within the video above, we solely see small snippets of what needed to have been a bigger operation. Given the proliferation of drone footage of even small actions, we’ll little doubt get a transparent image of the battle after the warfare concludes. I’m definitely desperate to learn the way these scrappy Ukrainians pulled off a coup of this magnitude,
Postscript: The commander of one of many division’s regiments reportedly died of suicide when it was found that just one in 10 of its tanks in deep storage had been usable. Many had engines lacking. You understand, for dachas and vodka. A lot for resupply. In the meantime, the commander of Russia’s 1st Tank Military, of which the 4th GTD was a part of, was relieved of his command.
