- Ukrainian forces continue to fight entrenched Russian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine.
- Russia’s vast fortifications are forcing Ukrainians to enter their trenches through minefields.
- A recent video shows Ukrainian forces using their close combat skills inside Russian trenches.
In early June, Ukraine launched a long-awaited counterattack against Russian forces in the east and south. Ukrainian forces are moving forward, but not as quickly as Kiev and the West hoped.
The extensive minefields and dense fortifications that Russia built in the occupied territories in late 2022 and early 2023 have slowed the Ukrainian advance, negated some of the advantages of Ukrainian Western Armed Mechanized Brigades, and forced Ukrainian infantry and special operators to disembark their vehicles to clear mines and storm trenches.
combat proximity and Russia’s complex defense It put the close combat capabilities of the Ukrainian army to a brutal test.
Ukrainian frogmen clearing Russian trenches
Ukrainian soldiers in the Russian trenches in images from a video widely shared on social media in June.
Screen capture via Ukrainian Special Operations Forces/Twitter
In June, a graphic video of Ukrainian special agents raiding a Russian trench line went viral online.
The footage showed Ukrainian Special Forces from the 73rd Naval Special Operations Center, a covert Navy SEAL-like unit, attacking Russian troops in the trenches somewhere in southern Ukraine. The frogmen entered the trench from the rear and began mopping up, one Ukrainian killing four Russian soldiers within minutes.
“You can tell they’re highly trained, they’re good with weapons, they’re good with grenades. It’s intense. It’s adrenaline-rich, but it’s not chaotic,” said John Spencer, director of urban warfare studies at the West Point Institute for Modern Warfare. Said Video of the Ukrainian army.
Ukrainian special operators and regular forces had to rely on luck and skill to repeatedly raid Russian trenches to survive. The fact that elite forces are being sent into the tedious task of clearing trenches suggests that Ukrainian military commanders are under pressure to advance and retake territory.
A trench in a Ukrainian National Guard position near Odessa on April 10, 2023.
BO AMSTRUP/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP (via Getty Images)
Typically, such highly trained troops focus on difficult missions requiring specialized skills, often behind enemy lines. For example, the 73rd Naval Center participates in naval raids against Russian-occupied territories around the Dnipro Delta near Kherson.
Ukrainian special operators have been training in modern close combat since at least 2014, when the U.S. and other NATO forces began helping Kiev modernize its forces. The Green Berets of the U.S. Army’s 10th Special Forces Group trained in Ukraine in a vast array of skills, including irregular warfare, small-unit tactics and close quarters combat, just before Russia’s attack last February.
These skills, especially close combat, were useful to the Ukrainian army in most of the major battles of the war, such as Bakhmut, Avdiuka, Marinka, Severodnetsk, where fierce house-to-house fighting took place.
“Step by step, meter by meter” Ukrainian soldiers in Marinka Said The New York Times in June said, “The Russians will destroy the building in front of us. They will start at the top floor and level everything. It doesn’t matter if we use them or not.”
Close combat
Ukrainian soldiers during a trench clearing exercise at a Ukrainian training center in November 2016.
U.S. Army/Sergeant Jacob Holmes
Melee combat, also known as hand-to-hand combat, is one of the most difficult skill sets to master. U.S. special operators spend years training to become experts in army delta force And Navy SEAL Team 6 has reached the highest level of proficiency.
In addition to world-class marksmanship under extreme pressure, close-quarters combat requires teamwork and situational awareness. Units that “flow” through targets in smooth, finely-coordinated movements. violence of the act Always effective.
Despite its name, close combat isn’t always played in close combat.
Ukrainian troops are trained by US soldiers to breach trenches at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center in Ukraine in June 2017.
United States Army/Sergeant Anthony Jones
“One second later you might be clearing a four-by-four-meter office room, but a few seconds later you might find yourself in a 50-meter hallway, a long street, or shooting out a building out of a window,” says Eli Fieldboy, a former Israeli special operator who now teaches melee combat in schools. project geckotold an insider in 2020.
This fluid nature of close quarters combat is evident in Ukraine, especially in and around urban centers. Ukrainian forces often have to go from clearing trenches to fighting in a city in just minutes, requiring not only technical but also mental toughness.
Close combat will become more frequent as Ukrainian forces continue to push back. Only the best trained and the luckiest can survive in this fierce battle.
Stavros Atramazoglu is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Greek Army Veteran (served in the National Guard with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army Headquarters), and a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. He is pursuing a master’s degree in strategy and cybersecurity from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.