Repeating its mistakes from start of Ukraine war, Russia loses a lot of tanks and APCs

Ukraine has lauded its recent success in taking out a slew of Russian tanks and armored vehicles near the embattled former Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka.
Kyiv said paratroopers from the country's 25th Airborne Brigade had stopped a "massive" Russian attack close to the village of Tonenke, destroying four tanks and two infantry fighting vehicles directly west of Avdiivka, according to Newsweek.
. The brigade, in a separate statement, said simply that it had "destroyed a column of enemy equipment."
The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank that closely follows the conflict in Ukraine, described the Russian attack around Tonenke as Moscow's "first battalion-sized mechanized assault" since the Kremlin kicked off its offensive on Avdiivka last October. A Russian tank battalion typically contains upwards of 30 vehicles.
Fresh off claiming Avdiivka in mid-February — Russia's first major victory since the fall o Bakhmut in May 2023 — the loss of so many vehicles in one fell swoop is a callback to the early errors, and sky-high armored losses, that Moscow suffered in the first phase of its full-scale invasion two years ago.
"There are some similarities between this Russian attack near Tonenke and those Russian assaults early in the war," said Bryden Spurling, senior research leader for defense and security with the European branch of the RAND think tank.
"It's surprising that the column in Tonenke mostly used a single road and didn't appear to use the open ground on either side and spread its forces out, though it looks like some vehicles did try to disperse," he told Newsweek.
The Russian crews may have been worried about muddy terrain or mines, he added, saying: "Either way, these were significant losses of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles."
"Near Tonenke, we saw almost the same mistakes from their side as near Vuhledar in the previous year," Major Victor Tregubov, a Ukrainian journalist and editor who now serves in the Ukrainian military, told Newsweek.