Occupants on a rare APC-MDM “Rakushka” blown apart by a mine explosion (video)
This is how we can see the use of “mine barriers” by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in one of the threatened areas
A video has appeared in the public domain that shows that during the fighting in Luhansk region, Russian occupiers who were moving to the attack line in a Rakushka tracked armored personnel carrier, typical of the Russian army’s airborne assault troops, hit a mine planted by Ukrainian soldiers.
At the same time, the process of blowing up the racists was recorded on a drone of our fighters. This, in turn, suggests that a “mine barrier” could have been used to disrupt another enemy attack, i.e., the rapid placement of mines in a threatened area, where the UAV was used at least to record the results of the damage (and possibly to set up a mine barrier).
Given the context, we can say that this format of utilization has become one of the means at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that allows them to slow down the pace of the Russian army’s offensive on the Kupyansk and Lyman directions.
It can also be added here that the Rakushka tracked armored personnel carrier MDM is actually rare for the Russian army. For example, the authors of The Military Balance 2023 do not yet provide figures on how many such tracked armored vehicles may be in service with the Russian military.
But at the same time, Oryx portal analysts cite a conservative estimate that over the course of the full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russians have lost at least 19 units of Rakushka armored personnel carriers, of which at least 7 have become trophies of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Earlier, Defense Express in one of its publications talked about the shortcomings of the protection of the racist APC-MDM “Rakushka”. And also, that the Russian military-industrial complex used the chassis from this vehicle to deploy the Zavet-D artillery control system intended for the airborne assault troops of the Russian army.
