REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi
- Ukraine has switched up its tactics in its counteroffensive, per reports.
- Russia's extensive defenses along the front line have slowed Ukrainian progress.
- Ukraine has now turned to artillery fire, rather than pressing forward with tanks.
Ukrainian ground forces have switched tactics in their counteroffensive to focus on artillery bombardment on Russian positions instead of attempting to push through with heavy armor, according to reports.
Ukraine's army has made slow and often costly gains pushing back against Russian defensive lines using tanks and armored vehicles supplied by its allies.
Ukrainian commanders have told the Financial Times that there is increasing use of heavy artillery instead, intended to clear a path for sappers and infantry units.
The reported shift in tactics comes after Ukraine suffered considerable losses in Western-supplied heavy vehicles.
It was on vehicles like Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, tanks, and mine-clearing equipment that Ukraine had pinned much of its hopes for its counteroffensive.
But they have come up against what one retired US general called "20 kilometers of hell" — dense Russian fortifications in the form of minefields and "dragon's teeth" anti-tank obstacles, which provide a barrier for heavy vehicles to then be picked off by missile strikes.
A large proportion of the US-supplied Bradley infantry fighting vehicles have been lost or damaged, according to reports.
The open-source tracking project Oryx has documented damage to, or loss of, 11 Western-supplied Leopard tanks, which were first documented on the battlefield in June.
"You can no longer do anything with just a tank, with some armor because the minefield is too deep, and sooner or later, it will stop, and then it will be destroyed by concentrated fire," Commander in Chief of Ukraine's armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, told the FT.
The changed tactic is slowing Ukrainian losses, the FT reported.
But by turning to artillery bombardments, Ukraine faces further issues — namely a shortage of 155 mm munitions, among others.
Western allies have questioned whether Ukraine can sustain the level of shelling needed to make the newer strategy work, the FT reported.
Analysis suggests that Ukraine is outgunning Russia in the artillery fight, taking out four Russian howitzers for every Ukrainian one destroyed, Forbes reported.
The use of controversial US-supplied cluster munitions, granted by the White House on July 20, may also help mitigate Ukraine's ammunition problem.
By sending out a spray of bomblets, cluster munitions are as effective at clearing trenches as eight conventional shells, according to the Kyiv Independent.