The better part of a Russian army battalion - 50 or so vehicles and up to a thousand troops ... The 17th’s shelling destroyed at least seven T-72 and T-80 tanks, 17 BMPs, seven MT-LB armored tractors, five other vehicles and much of the bridging unit itself, including a tugboat and the pontoon span.
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Only 3 tanks destroyed in the images - where are the other 4 destroyed tanks of the 60 each Mechanized Battalion has? Previously destroyed surely but how many remained to make the crossing?
Depending on the type of Battalion it would have 42-49 BMPs (82s or 2s) so 17 were destroyed.
Mechanized Battalions have between 540-460 troops, depending of battalion make up. Unless it was 2 battalions, there would not have been a 1000 troops.
This is the media making much of a relatively minor incident of no real military significance
The article doesn’t have it, but a dozen other photos have been shared of the destruction, though a lot of the armor simply looked abandoned. The russkies took off running after the initial attack.
“Only 3 tanks destroyed in the images...”
There are a great many more images of the aftermath of this battle available on the interwebs. Many, many more than 3 tanks were destroyed. It actually looks like dozens were abandoned intact on the far side of the river when the Russians withdrew after the bridge was blown, because they had no means to take them back across.
The Russians are not fighting in pure battalions but in Battalion Tactical Groups. Typically BTG's are made up of an infantry battalion reinforced with a tank company and artillery, air-defence, engineering and logistical support units. Thus there would normally be only 10 tanks. I think that this might be one of the problems with the Russian; they have spread their tanks across their forces in small penny packets rather than concentrating them for a breakthrough or major exploitation. That said, an opposed river crossing is one of the most difficult operations for any army.
