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Russian Combat Engineers Helped Break Back of Ukrainian Counteroffensive – Analyst

© Sputnik / Maksim Blinov / Go to the mediabankRussian engineer troops' drills in the Moscow Region. File photo
Russian engineer troops' drills in the Moscow Region. File photo - Sputnik International, 1920, 21.01.2024
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In the realm of the Russian Armed Forces' different branches, combat engineers took the lead in incorporating robotic military equipment into their operations, retired colonel and veteran military analyst Viktor Litovkin told Sputnik.
On January 21, the Russian military celebrates the Day of Engineer Troops, one of the oldest branches of the country's armed forces.

On that day in 1701, Tsar Peter the Great signed a decree in Moscow, establishing a school for the training of artillery officers and military engineers.

Russian engineering troops - which include sapper units - have always faced the same tasks, including protecting soldiers on the battlefield, on the march and in the rear, says retired colonel and veteran military analyst Viktor Litovkin.
He added that another task is to aid soldiers in launching offensives by clearing the path for troops marching through rivers, forests, rubble, and the like.

The engineering troops are currently the most technologically equipped among Russian forces. The quantity of military hardware per person in these troops surpasses that of tank or artillery units," Litovkin remarked. He added that every Russian sapper is obligated to operate this equipment, which includes trenching machines.

In this context, the analyst emphasized that the skill of the Russian engineer troops significantly contributed to the failure of Ukraine's counteroffensive last year.

"The formidable minefields laid by Russian combat engineers proved impervious to Ukraine's Western-supplied modern military equipment, including Leopard-2 tanks and Humvee armored vehicles," Litovkin stated.

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He emphasized that the ongoing Russian special military operation is aiding the country's engineer forces in enhancing their skills, effectively addressing their combat missions in the conflict zone in Ukraine.

"I will now tell you something cynical and paradoxical: all hostilities are the engine of progress, which reflects the creation of new types of armed forces and new means of defense and attack. In this respect, engineering troops are no different from other branches of the armed forces. In the course of the special military operation, Russian combat engineers practice both the techniques they knew and those they began to refine in the special operation zone," Litovkin shared.

He recollected that the Ukrainian army had been equipped with various types of mines and mine-clearing systems, provided by "the most powerful armies in the world" from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy.

"This posed new and difficult tasks for our engineering troops, which are being successfully solved," the analyst stressed.

He expressed optimism regarding the future of what he touted as the "unique" Russian engineer troops, asserting that their work would be grounded in "new physical principles."
Discussing the military hardware utilized by Russian combat engineers, he specifically highlighted the Uran-9 remote-controlled demining system and the UR-77 mine-clearing complex, also known as Zmey Gorynych (a three-headed firedrake mentioned in Russian folklore).
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"Imagine a thick fuse (like a fire hose) that unwinds and then explodes over a distance of up to 80 meters (0,049 miles). That's why it's called 'Zmey Gorynych', which flies like a firedrake, making a passage through any minefield 20 meters wide and paving the way for military equipment such as a tank or an infantry fighting vehicle. There are also special obstacle-clearing machines that can deal with any kind of debris - trees, stones, etc.," Litovkin explained.

In addition, he mentioned the so-called smart mines, which he explained are designed to self-destruct or self-deactivate, depending on the engineer's plans. According to Litovkin, Russian military engineers also have advanced mine detectors capable of detecting a mine at a depth of one and a half to two meters or at a distance. He concluded by recalling that Russian military engineers were the first to use combat robots in their hard and honorable work.
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