Riding out in broad daylight outside the village of Yablunivka, 10 km from the border with Russia, a three-person T-64 or T-72 tank from the Ukrainian army’s 1st Tank Brigade engaged Russian troops at point-blank range last weekend. It fired several rounds from its 125-mm main gun—and then pumped out a smoke screen and darted back to safety. Mission complete.

The exploding tank shells possibly marked the end of a grueling, month-long battle for Sumy. Seizing the initiative after pushing Ukrainian troops out of western Russia’s Kursk Oblast, a strong force of around 50,000 Russians marched into Sumy, aiming to create a buffer zone along the border and potentially even capture Sumy city, 35 km from the border.

It was a hard fight, but a smaller Ukrainian force—drawn from parts of at least 10 brigades, each with a few thousand people—halted the Russian advance just south of Yablunivka.

“In certain areas, our units are successfully using active defense tactics and liberating Ukrainian land in Sumy Oblast,” Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief, stated on Saturday, around the same time that 1st Tank Brigade tank was rolling into battle. “We have re-constrained about 50,000 personnel of the Russian armed forces, including elite brigades of their airborne troops and marines,” Syrskyi added.

The Russians employed their latest tactics, largely leaving behind their increasingly precious heavy armored vehicles. Having lost more than 20,000 armored vehicles and other heavy equipment in the first 41 months of their wider war on Ukraine, and struggling to build more than a few hundred new T-90M tanks every year, the Russians increasingly ride into battle on motorcycles or quad-bikes—or simply walk.

The vehicle-free army

The paucity of Russian armored vehicles in Sumy was striking. “Not sure anybody noticed this, but so far [Russia] has visibly lost one MRAP in Sumy Oblast,” analyst Moklasen noted on 15 June, using the acronym for mine-resistant, ambush-protected armored trucks. “Everything is done either on foot or by bike and quad.”

“As an assault platform, motorcycles are generally seen as weak and unreliable, rarely delivering decisive results,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight explained. “However, when used in a proper role—alongside fire support, electronic warfare support, drones and armored vehicles—they can be highly effective.”

“At roughly $2,000 to $4,000 apiece (depending on model and condition), these bikes are far cheaper to replace than infantry fighting vehicles, with minimal maintenance costs,” Frontelligence Insight added. “Their mobility and low silhouette allow them to slip past obstacles and evade detection more easily than larger platforms—especially when paired with on-board electronic-warfare gear.”

“Concealable even in small buildings, and nearly silent at night in electric variants, they preserve the element of surprise. A motorcycle can reach a position in minutes, outpacing a noisy, slower BMP or tank and narrowing the window for enemy [first-person-view] drone response.” 

But to defeat heavier Ukrainian forces and capture and hold significant terrain, bike troops need strong support. And that support requires coordination that’s still lacking among many Russian formations. “The challenge, of course, is execution,” Frontelligence Insight observed. “Russian forces have struggled to coordinate such combined-arms operations even at the company or battalion level, limiting their ability to use motorcycles as efficient force multipliers.”

Unsupported bike troops, lacking the protection afforded by overhead drones and the extra firepower provided by nearby artillery, would be easy prey for an aggressive tank crew. “Despite the stereotypical view that tanks are obsolete and ineffective in modern warfare, there continue to be examples of their successful use,” the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team noted.

That one-tank Ukrainian counterattack outside Yablunivka is one of those examples. That T-64 or T-72 crew may have halted the last Russian advance in this phase of the fight for Sumy.

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