Golf carts on the frontlines: Russia's disastrous attack

Russia has deployed a variety of weaponry in its assaults on Ukraine, among them a particularly intriguing tool dubbed by some media as Moscow's "Chinese golf carts." These vehicles have been utilized in recent attacks on Ukrainian positions.

One such Russian attack using its Chinese gold carts saw an assault force attempt to storm positions on the frontline near Lyman in March. That attack did not go well and was captured on video by Ukrainian drone operators.

The 60th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published evidence of Russian forces using their Chinese-made Desertcross 1000-3 to ferry troops into battle against strong Ukrainian positions. 

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In the description posted with the video of the attack, the 60th Brigade revealed that the assault was powerful. It included tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and infantry riding into battle on the Chinese Desertcross 1000-3. 

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"Everything that didn't manage to escape now lies as scrap metal on Ukrainian soil. We will drive out the orcs, and the land will be clean and blooming again!" the brigade noted according to a translation from Newsweek. 

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Several news outlets have described the Desertcross 1000-3 as a golf cart but it can be more accurately labeled as an all-terrain vehicle according to Defense News. However, it does look a lot like a militarized golf cart. 

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The Desertcross 1000-3 is a windowless vehicle that is about the same size as a small car and it has a pickup bed in its rear. The vehicle costs roughly $17,200 per unit and it has been in use for quite a while by Russia. 

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“The Chinese-made Desertcross is an 85-horsepower ATV. It’s the kind of thing you’d find at a construction site or on a farm. It’s not the kind of thing you’d ride into battle, as it lacks armor and weaponry,” wrote Forbes’s David Axe.

Axe continued by writing that it was difficult for a Russian T-90 tank or MT-LB armored vehicle to survive an attack on Ukrainian positions unsupported during daylight through a killzone, but it was impossible for the Desertcross. 

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“But when your regiment lacks any other means of transporting infantry to the line of contact, and you’re not terribly worried about casualties, you might risk it,” Axe added, and that’s just what Russian commanders did. 

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In the video, the initial attacking vehicles can be seen moving quickly along a treeline before artillery begins to rain down on the Russian column, switching between different views as the enemy advances toward Ukrainian positions. 

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A Russian tank can be seen taking a direct and the video displays the general chaos of the attack as Ukrainian drone pilots pick off different vehicles. Just over halfway through the nearly two-minute video the scene turns to the Desertcross advance. 

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Four Desertcross vehicles can be seen advancing along a treeline in single file before the video cuts to a different angle and the viewer sees the ‘gold carts’ get hit with what appeared to be cluster munitions, something Axe noted was used in the battle. 

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‘When the smoke cleared, the T-90 and several Desertcrosses lay wrecked among a lot of dead Russians,” Axe wrote. Newsweek noted the incident was the “first documented case” of the Desertcrosses’ “participation in assault operations.”

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Moscow purchased roughly 1,600 Desertcross 1000-3 units from the Chinese company Shandong Odes Industry and already has roughly 530 active Desertcross’ in its military according to the Ukrainian military news website Militaryni. 

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“The Russian troops have been using Chinese civilian Desertcross all-terrain vehicles on the front lines for a long time,” Militaryni reported. The Destercross was first seen on the battlefield in November 2023 as a medical evacuation vehicle, Defense Express noted. 

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“The Desertcross 1000-3 all-terrain vehicle is designed for patrol and reconnaissance operations, raid and search and rescue operations, as well as transportation of material in difficult road and soil conditions,” a separate Defense Express report explained. 

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