3rd Assault Brigade capture
On May 9, Russian forces attacked across Ukraine’s northern border with Russia. This offensive, timed to coincide with Victory Day—the day Russia celebrates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany—quickly ran into a wall of Ukrainian mechanized brigades.
All summer, the Ukrainians have been pushing back, slowly reclaiming the sliver of Ukrainian territory the Russians captured in the early days of the offensive.
The counterattacks involve artillery and drone operators supporting tanks and infantry—all overseen by commanders in their headquarters. It’s all very modern. But sometimes the outcome hinges on that most ancient tenet of warfare: deception.
The Ukrainian army’s 3rd Assault Brigade, fighting somewhere north of Kharkiv this summer, showed how—in an early morning attack that turned into an elaborate daytime ruse. Cameras in the brigade’s headquarters and with its tanks and infantry captured the drama.
“Work very carefully, very carefully,” one 3rd Assault Brigade commander intoned as a platoon, supported by T-72 tanks, mortars and drones, readied for an assault on a web of Russian trenches anchored by a gully.
The tanks attacked first, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. “I’ll never forget or forgive you, you bastards!” one tanker bellowed at the unseen Russians.
The tanks fired a few rounds and then pumped out a smoke screen. “Let’s get moving,” an infantry leader said.
The Ukrainian infantry reached one of the outermost Russian trenches. They could hear a Russian machine gunner just 100 yards away. “Little by little, yes, we keep moving,” the infantry leader said, urging his soldiers forward.
They advanced along the trench toward the gully—a Russian strongpoint. “We need to shoot a tank or mortar there,” a commander said back at headquarters.
One of the T-72s fired three shots. “All three shots hit perfectly,” the commander observed.
Back in the trench, one Ukrainian soldier sat bleeding from a wound to his hand. “I’ll just tie it up,” a medic told him. Another had suffered an injury to his buttocks. “Is my ass bleeding badly or not?”
Scrutinizing drone feeds, officers and their staff analyzed the battlefield. A Russian machine gunner “controls two sectors,” one officer concluded.
“We have to break in,” the infantry leader responded.
Luckily for the Ukrainians, the Russian artillery was silent. “There’s no artillery there now—we have a chance to break in,” the infantry leader reported.
But he and his team were low on supplies. “Four fucking magazines,” he muttered. “No water.”
The Russian machine gunner was still firing away. “We’re going to look for them with a drone,” the infantry leader said.
And then, a stroke of luck. The Ukrainian soldiers found an intact Russian radio, left behind by retreating infantry. “They’re assaulting us,” a Russian soldier complained on his channel.
That radio was an opportunity. “Get the frequencies of the … radio,” a 3rd Assault Brigade commander barked. “Try to organize it.”
“We will now try to fuck them over,” the infantry leader said. “Who is a Russian-speaker?”
The Russians’ radio chatter indicated they were expecting reinforcements. It was time to move. A Russian-speaking Ukrainian soldier hopped on the captured radio. “We’re 1st Company,” he transmitted—part of the same battalion as the Russians in the gully.
The Russian machine gun shifted its fire to avoid hitting its “allies.”
“Let’s go,” the 3rd Assault Brigade infantry leader ordered. “Yell in Russian!”
By the time the Russians realized the soldiers approaching them weren’t fellows Russians, it was too late. They were all but surrounded.
The Russian survivors retreated across a field. “The rest of the roosters are running away,” a 3rd Assault Brigade commander crowed.
Out in the open, the fleeing Russians were easy targets for the Ukrainian mortars and drones. “Let’s start shooting at that field a little bit,” an officer ordered.
Two Russian survivors approached a bridge. A Ukrainian drone was watching. “Wait a moment,” a Ukrainian commander breathed. “They’ll be together.”
As soon as the two Russians were standing side by side, a Ukrainian shell exploded at their feet. The carnage was bad enough that the 3rd Assault Brigade censored the drone video before releasing it.
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