Russia launches biggest tank assault of war, but it ended with one of largest-scale tank massacres

On last Saturday, the Russian army launched what may have been one of the largest-scale tank assaults of Russia’s 25-month wider war on Ukraine, according to Forbes.
İt is noted that it ended in one of the largest-scale tank massacres of Russia’s 25-month wider war on Ukraine. When the smoke cleared, the Russians had left behind—on a road west of the ruins of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine—a third of their tanks.
Forbes says that the costly assault underscores two clashing trends as Russia’s war of choice grinds into its third year. For weeks prior to the Saturday assault, Russian regiments and brigades—apparently short on vehicle after losing hundreds of them capturing Avdiivka back in mid-February—mostly deployed foot-borne infantry to attack west of the city.
That changed in the recent days. “On the Avdiivka direction, the enemy has reintroduced the employment of armored vehicles, including tanks,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies noted , the day before a battalion or two of those vehicles rolled into a bloodbath near Tonen’ke.
That the Ukrainians could defeat such a large and heavily-armed Russian force points to the other trend. Despite struggling with inadequate supplies of key munitions, Ukrainian brigades still are capable of mounting a fierce defense—often with a combination of mines, artillery, anti-tank missiles and explosive first-person-view drones.
“Sometimes it is amazing the amount of stupid, mindless meat that dies in bundles due to the ambitions of a small man,” the Ukrainian air-assault forces’ 25th Brigade mused in a social-media post following the Saturday battle west of Tonen’ke on Avdiivka’s western outskirts. That small man is, of course, Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Thirty-six tanks and 12 BMP fighting vehicles from the Russian army’s 6th Tank Regiment—part of the 90th Tank Division—attacked along a road threading from Russian-occupied Tonen’ke toward the free village of Uman’ske, two miles to the west, according to Forbes.
The Ukrainian 25th Brigade spotted the 48-vehicle column—and hit it hard. “Twelve tanks and eight BMPs were taken out,” wrote “Kriegsforscher,” a drone-operator with the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade. “Pure madness.”
If the Russians actually gained any ground at the cost of those 20 vehicles—and potentially scores of troops—the gains were modest. The day after the assault, the Center for Defense Strategies described the fighting around Tonen’ke as “positional,” meaning neither side significantly was advancing.