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Ukrainians Ambush a Tank at Close Range
Published 2 years ago
Ukrainian infantrymen allegedly ambush a Russian tank at close range with an RPG while maneuvering through the woods.
While at no point in this video can we see the alleged tank being ambushed by the infantrymen who published this video to TikTok, it does still raise a valid concern for the Russians operating in Ukraine. The fundamental weakness of tanks is, believe it or not, dismounted infantry that undetected and within range of the vehicle itself. In World War 2, a lot of tanks that were destroyed in combat were destroyed by dismounted infantry that were able to maneuver close enough to the vehicle to take it out. Obviously tactics, optics, and weapon systems have evolved since World War 2, but the simple danger of skilled and motivated infantryman remains a constant threat for armored vehicles.
It's unclear if this footage shows exactly what the Ukrainians who posted it says it shows. This is primarily because the troops were more focused on accomplishing their mission objective than they were with recording it for a bunch of people on the internet who are entirely detached from their day-to-day reality. While we can't independently verify the validity of this footage, it does appear to show Ukrainian infantrymen attacking something with an RPG, and those infantrymen said that their target was a Russian piece of armor.
For the Russians, there's really only a few ways to combat this. If tanks are maneuvering, regardless of if it's an urban environment or a wooded on as we're seeing in this video, they need to be supported by infantrymen. Those infantrymen don't need to be placed exactly with the tanks, but having them in picket positions around the area the tanks are operating forces enemy infantry troops to only make head-on attacks towards the armor, which is obviously not ideal due to the threat of coaxial machine guns and anti-infantry tank rounds.
