Russian Soldiers on E-Scooters Pose Challenge to Ukrainians

Their ability to disperse quickly makes it difficult for Kyiv's forces

- Marc Santora

Three Russian soldiers race down a cratered road on electric scooters, the video shows, while others speed across muddy fields on all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).

More Russians surge forward on foot, scrambling for cover in the ruins of blasted-out homes, according to the video of the battle on the outskirts of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine filmed by the Ukrainian military. As the fighting rages, other Russian troops arrive in armored personnel carriers.

The 12th Special Operations Brigade Azov, a Ukrainian unit, rains down cluster munitions, chases the Russians with drones and engages in close-quarter combat, the video shows. The footage was verified by military analysts and some of it has been posted on YouTube.

At the end of the day, the assault failed, said Lieutenant-Colonel Dmytro Pavlenko-Kryzheshevskyi, 36, the chief of intelligence for the brigade, which provided the video.

The battle, he said, was typical of the assaults taking place across hundreds of kilometers of the front, where Ukrainian forces are waging dozens of pitched battles for patches of land no bigger than a few city blocks.

Despite staggering Russian losses - with more than 1,500 killed and wounded every day in recent weeks, according to Western estimates - the scope of attacks continues to grow, according to soldiers at the front and military analysts.

And Russia is throwing greater numbers of soldiers into the assaults than it did in some earlier stages of the fighting, Lt-Col Pavlenko-Kryzheshevskyi said.

The Russian troops have also been increasingly using electric scooters, motorcycles and ATVs, which allow them to disperse quickly across the front, he said.

"Hitting just one piece of equipment carrying 15 people, well, that's possible, it can be done quite easily. But when those 15 people are riding electric scooters, then that's a very big problem.