Using civilian vehicles for military purposes has been a staple of both sides for years now, I’d hardly fault them for that. Vehicles get shredded at such a high rate that you use whatever you can.
Hell, just a week or two ago there was an article posted here about donated Toyota pickups being transferred to UAF.
Donated Toyota Pickups have been military vehicles for decades
I don’t fault them for using civilian vehicles, yes of course Ukraine does though many of the donated “civilian” vehicles are carefully kitted out before being deployed anywhere near the frontline so it is a little bit off the mark to describe them so.
The difference is that Ukraine is a mechanized military whereas the russian military by and large is no longer a mechanized military, especially not one with armored maneuver capability. Yes russia has some number of tanks now, but that is because they stopped using them on the frontline and one presumes a similar attrocious rate of loss will resume once they are used again.
That doesn’t mean that plenty of Ukrainians aren’t making the best of their unarmored civilian vehicles in roles they weren’t intended for, it means there is a systematic measurable difference between Ukraine and russia’s use of unarmored vehicles. More to the point many of the armored vehicles russia is producing such as the BTR series simply do not in practice protect their crews & passengers, the armor is essentially meaningless.
Russia does not seem to care and this point simply does not have the armored vehicles to deploy in the situations where they are desperately needed over unarmored vehicles. The evidence is pretty overwhelming at this point.
Ukraine has the capacity to and does deploy MRAPs and other armored vehicles intelligently to minimize the use of truly civilian vehicles though I am sure there are plenty of issues with it in practice. I posted an article awhile ago about the difficulty of civilian ambulance drivers near the frontline driving unarmored ambulances. Of course ultimately that is russia’s fault for stooping to such pathetic lows as purposefully targetting civilian ambulances…
BTR series simply do not in practice protect their crews & passengers, the armor is essentially meaningless.
That’s not strictly true, the BTR armor does have a use, mainly, protecting against shrapnel and debris from stuff like artillery hitting near by but not directly on the vehicle. It’s not meant to be on the front line, it’s meant as a transport in areas that are at threat of indirect fire. Same as an M113. If all that is expected is un observed indirect artillery fire, it’s very useful, unfortunately, now there is a lot of observed fire and guided munitions threatening rear areas, so the utility is diminished.
They literally show a piece of shrapnel that easily penetrated and destroyed equipment inside as an example to illustrate in the video.
BTRs and BMPs are deathtraps, especially if they are loaded with ammunition.
It depends on the distance from the blast and the size of the shell. Too close and it won’t do much, again not designed to survive observed fire, designed to survive shelling in the general area. Like a steel helmet. Won’t stop a bullet, won’t block a mortar round right next to someone, will statistically reduce the number of deaths from a variety of head wounds by an order of magnitude.
There is a reason russians don’t ride into battle inside their bmps and btrs, but rather on top of them completely exposed, it is because they aren’t that stupid.
They’re cramped as shit, have awful suspension and seats, not air conditioned (and not even ventilated really), and you’re safer from mines on top due them not being designed to be survivable from mines. The protection and comfort also varies greatly between BTR type, there being a big difference between BTR-60 and BTR-80. Although the BTR-80 isn’t exactly comfortable, or safe from anything bigger than 7.62 nato ball.
When people ride on top, they’re ether imitating what they’ve seen or been told by others, or there is a decision being made: That the vulnerability to mines on the road, danger of being inside the vehicle when it gets hit with a HEAT charge, or the fatigue of being so cramped and overheated, isn’t worth the protection from mortar shrapnel.
Yeah, in otherwords they are junk vehicles that don’t do the basic job they are supposed to and that russia is too full of bullshitters to have addressed the obvious critical failures of for many decades.
So all civilian type cars are legitimate targets now.
That’s not good for the remaining residents.
This is a big reason why military vehicles are usually made to look aesthetically different than civilian vehicles.
Even a classic “technical” built from a pickup truck or a flatbed truck (for a larger antiaircraft gun) still clearly has a massive gun on it despite the rest of it looking civilian… this is just throwing your entire civilian population to the dogs by using them to hide your military logistics.
It is dangerous as hell for everyone to start down this path.
Israel used to claim Hamas was using hospitals, schools and residences for hiding fighters. For some reason that claim hasn’t been in the news in a while, but it was revealed that Mossad hq was under a very expensive apartment building in Tel Aviv, since the recent invasion of Iran.
deleted by creator
Signs that the Special Military Operation is going well.
