Desperate Russian Rear-Area Troops Are Armoring Their Vehicles With Wood Logs
Ukrainian roads have quickly become a killing ground for Russian convoys moving through hostile territory amid a
reportedly worsening logistics situation. While losses of heavily armored tanks and armored personnel carriers
to anti-tank weapons are piling up, far less fortified vehicles are vulnerable even to small arms fire. Losses of light and unarmored vehicles trying to ferry men and materiel to advancing Russian forces are also increasing. As a result, Russian drivers have gotten creative in fortifying their trucks for the deadly roads leading ever deeper into Ukraine.
Images of Russian KAMAZ trucks appeared Saturday showing logs stacked on the front bumper as additional improvised armor. Crews even managed to retain their
distinctive “V” markings seen on Russian vehicles in the sector. Other vehicles use wood boards and junk metal to protect their most vulnerable frontal areas.
The three vehicles look to be carrying PMP pontoon bridge elements, a valuable logistics asset and one of the Ukrainian forces’ preferred targets alongside fuel trucks. A PMP bridge was likely set up over the
Pripyat River in the Belarusian side of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in the final days leading up to the war.
The logs themselves appear cut from trees right behind the vehicles and are likely intended to protect the trucks’ radiators from small arms fire. The last thing any Russian vehicle crew wants is to survive an ambush only for the truck to overheat and break down nearby.
This is far from the first instance of Russian troops trying to improve their vehicles’ armor for their invasion of Ukraine. At least one
captured T-72 tank had sandbags on its turret in a vain attempt to augment its explosive reactive armor blocks. Russian units have also carried logs onboard as a means to
help vehicles escape the suffocating mud long feared by observers as a threat to the Russian military's off-road operations. This is in addition to the cage-like improvised armor that
began appearing on Russian tanks before the invasion in an attempt to counter-drone and anti-tank guided-missile attacks.
Absent better security, Russian drivers are doing whatever they can to survive Ukrainian ambushes.
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