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  • February 18, 2025
Three Ukrainian soldiers aided by an M-2 ensured that fifteen Russians ceased to exist

Three Ukrainian soldiers aided by an M-2 ensured that fifteen Russians ceased to exist

The 425th Assault Battalion is one of only six Ukrainian battalions will receive U.S.-made M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles – 31 of them if the battalion adheres to the standard Ukrainian force structure.

The 400-strong battalion is putting the 33-ton, 10-strong IFVs to good use as part of the Ukrainians’ spirited defense of Pokrovsk, the city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast that is the locus of Russia’s years-long offensive in the east.

In a furious infantry action somewhere along the approach to Pokrovsk on or shortly before Monday, a team of 425th Assault Battalion troopers, supported by mortars and drones – and a single quick-reaction Bradley – defeated a Russian force five times their size.

The two-part firefight began when three soldiers from the 425th Assault Battalion, who had apparently been dropped by an M-2 fulfilling its primary role as a “combat taxi,” spotted three Russian soldiers approaching along a road.

The Ukrainians saw the Russians. The Russians it didn’t see the Ukrainians. “These three don’t suspect anything,” says a soldier from the 425th Assault Battalion told in a video helpfully translated by Estonian analyst WarTranslated.

The Ukrainians “came out and controlled the situation with a grenade,” the narrator joked. A few well-aimed rifle bullets ended the ambush. Two Russians lay dead. A third “decided he had had enough” and crawled towards the Ukrainians to surrender.

That’s when an even three-on-three battle went askew for the 425th Assault Battalion. A dozen more Russians marched along the same road, watched all the while by a Ukrainian drone.

Nearby Ukrainian mortar crews opened fire. Drone operators joined in the bombing. The Russian strike group “ceased to exist,” the narrator said.

Just to be sure, an M-2 — perhaps the same one that dropped off the first three Ukrainian troopers — arrived on the scene “and added more fire.” The Bradley blasted away with its rapid-firing 25-millimeter autocannon, turning the killing zone into a slaughterhouse.

There were no additional Russian prisoners.

The skirmish ended when engineers blew up a bridge that the two Russian attack groups had used to approach Pokrovsk. Finally, the 425th Assault Battalion dropped off a new group of infantry and picked up the three soldiers who had just defeated fifteen Russians.

It was a classic combined arms battle for the Ukrainians: a coordinated mix of infantry and mechanized actions, supported by reconnaissance, artillery, air strikes and engineers.

And it underscored the extreme value of the approximately 300 M-2s the United States has donated to Ukraine, most of which are still in action despite participating in almost all of the toughest battles in Ukraine and western Russia since early 2023.

If the Ukrainians have one regret, it’s that they may not get any more Bradleys. The incoming administration of newly-elected US President Donald Trump has indicated that, at best, it will reduce US aid to Ukraine. At worst, it could end it all.

In the latter case, those 300 M-2s should be sufficient – ​​possibly for the duration of the war.

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