'Crutch' Russian Battalions: Occupiers Become Easy Targets For Ukrainian Drones

• 22.01.2025, 8:52

Moscow is spending human resources faster than it can restore them.

The emergence of Russian assault groups, which consist of soldiers on crutches, indicates that Moscow is spending human resources faster than it can restore them.

As journalist David Axe writes in his column for Forbes, the command of the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Armed Forces formed and sent assault groups consisting of wounded soldiers on foot into battle. A drone video was recently published online, which recorded Russian assault troops near Pokrovsk.

Most of them were on crutches when they went to attack the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, so the drone operators quickly eliminated them. In addition, the Russian occupier filmed other wounded soldiers of the Russian army preparing for a similar assault:

"What may at first have seemed like an anomaly—a bizarre waste of lives potentially ordered by one cruel Russian commander—now seems more systemic."

The observer notes that the proliferation of "crutch battalions" on at least one of the war's fronts indicates the enormous number of Russian troops on the battlefield. According to him, we are talking about about 600,000 soldiers, but not all of them can actually fight.

Axe emphasized that Russian losses in equipment and the expansion of the Ukrainian unmanned corps are forcing the Russian command to save "the few surviving modern tanks and combat vehicles", sending infantry into attacks. In addition, dispersed soldiers are more difficult targets for Ukrainian drones.

"Daily Russian casualties have spiked as Russian doctrine has evolved to favor infantry over vehicles. Attacking with infantry rather than vehicles leverages a Russian asset—sheer manpower—but risks squandering that asset for the relatively modest territorial gains the Russians have registered in the last year."