Ukraine’s 128th Brigade Probes Russian Lines—And Finds Old T-54 Tanks

For nearly two weeks now, the Ukrainian army’s 128th Mountain Brigade has been testing Russian defenses in and around the town of P’yatykhatky, just east of the drained Kakhovka Reservoir, which emptied five billion gallons of water into the Dnipro River watershed after someone—the Russians, apparently—blew up the adjacent dam on June 6.

What the 128th Mountain Brigade has found near P’yatykhatky, it seems, is pro-Russian separatists, Russian reservists and some old T-62 and T-54 tanks that the Russians are using as short-range, mobile artillery.

The Russian order of battle is … unimpressive. But the 128th Mountain Brigade hasn’t yet breached the defenses—because, it seems, the brigade is spread thin along this sector of the southern front.

Ukrainian brigades launched their long-anticipated 2023 counteroffensive on the night of June 4. A dozen or more of Ukraine’s best-equipped and most experienced brigades are attacking on several axes—and making significant gains on at least one them: the axis running north to south along the Mokri Yaly River, 60 miles east of P’yatykhatky.

The western edge of the front is fairly quiet in comparison. The 128th Mountain Brigade probes. The separatists and Russian reservists open fire with their artillery and mobile guns, including the 60-year-old T-62s and 70-year-old T-54s.

The 128th itself owns more than a few aging weapons, including at least one improvised fighting vehicle combining the hull of a captured Russian T-62 with the turret of a captured Russian BMP-2 fighting vehicle.

The balance of power seems to favor the Ukrainians. In 13 days of fighting, the 128th Brigade and supporting reconnaissance troops apparently have advanced a few miles south of their original positions.

One Ukrainian assault, on Saturday, reportedly involved just a handful of tanks and fighting vehicles. Russian fire repulsed those attackers, according to one Russian blogger, but the Ukrainians meanwhile secured a route into P’yatykhatky from the nearby settlement of Lobkove. “There is a fight,” the blogger reported.

It’s mostly an artillery battle, for now. “The armed forces of Ukraine are now concentrating their efforts on counterbattery fire, trying to suppress our guns and thereby allow their units to pass,” the blogger explained. “From our side, the T-62 and T-54 tanks are also actively working as improvised self-propelled guns.”

“The fighters on the ground praise the efforts of their crews very much.”

But these ancient tanks, which can fire—inaccurately—just 10 miles or so, almost certainly are outgunned by the Ukrainian 44th Artillery Brigade, which provides fire support to the 128th Brigade. The 44th Brigade’s best guns, its American-made M-777s, can fire GPS-guided shells as far as 15 miles. Its old Soviet-made 2A36s fire a few miles farther, albeit less accurately.

How far and how quickly the Ukrainian mountain brigade can advance depends in large part on the outcome of the artillery duel around P’yatykhatky. If you see a flurry of reports about T-62s and T-54s falling into Ukrainian hands, it probably means the 128th Brigade has broken through.