The Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway in the Donbas.
Kyiv is still probing the Russian defensive lines to find weak spots it can exploit. But this can be a time-consuming and costly process.
Evidence from the ground indicates that the Ukrainian military has already lost some of its newest Western weapon systems.
But despite the losses, the Ukrainians continue to push hard in search of an operational breakthrough that could shorten the war.
Leopard 2 and M2 Bradley Down in Ukraine
The Ukrainian counteroffensive began in the Donbas but has now stretched further south into the Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Over the past 48 hours, the Ukrainians have thrown significant forces in the western part of Zaporizhzhia in an attempt to break through the Russian defensive line.
In the attack, the Ukrainian military lost its first Western heavy weapon systems from the latest deliveries, including at least one Leopard 2A6 main battle tank and several M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.
The Ukrainian forces attacked near Novopokrovka, but they encountered dense minefields and heavy Russian artillery fire. The photos and videos of the battlefield indicate that most of the Ukrainian weapon systems got incapacitated by mines and were abandoned by their crews under heavy Russian artillery fire.
Ukraine has received or is expecting approximately 200 main battle tanks from the West, including Leopard 2s, Leopard 1s, Challenger 2s, and M1 Abrams. France has also sent an unspecified number of AMX-10RC tank killers to Kyiv, and the Ukrainian forces are already using them in their counter-offensive.
The U.S. military has sent or committed to sending its Ukrainian counterpart 109 M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and four M2 Bradley fire support team vehicles.
Also, Germany and Sweden have respectively committed several dozen Marder A1 and CV90 infantry fighting vehicles for Ukraine’s mechanized infantry.
Ground Combat and Expected Casualties
The war in Ukraine is the largest conventional conflict on European soil since the end of World War Two. It is expected that the Ukrainians will lose heavy weapon systems in a push to liberate their country. To expect anything different would be absurd.
The Russian forces might have underperformed at almost every point in this war, but that doesn’t mean that Ukrainians will have a walk in the park in their counter-offensive. Since the dawn of war, the defender has an advantage over the attacker. And the Russian military has had months to prepare for the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Russian forces have constructed some of the most extensive defensive lines in recent history, with anti-tank and anti-infantry positions that stretch for miles.
Western weapon systems like the Leopard 2 and M2 Bradley aren’t invincible. They can be taken out by skill or luck like any other weapon system on the modern battlefield.
As the Institute for the Study of War correctly stated in its latest operational update, ”Western equipment is not impervious to damage any more than the equipment that the Ukrainians have been using and losing since February 2022.”
What is different about them compared to the Russian weapon systems is that they are more resilient and have better offensive capabilities.
A 19FortyFive Defense and National Security Columnist, Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
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