Remember when combat video captured a critical clash between tanks and Russian drones?
It was a fierce fight
In November 2024, combat footage captured by a drone recorded a pair of Ukrainian tanks engaged in a fierce fight with Russian ground forces and then a unit of enemy drones near the occupied village of Novooleksiivka.
An epic battle in eastern Ukraine
Fragments of the battle between Ukrainian tanks and Russian infantry troops were published on Telegram by the Hostri Kartuzy unit of Ukraine's National Guard and it showed a very harrowing encounter.
Photo Credit: Telegram @gostrikartuzy
Breaking through Russian lines
Two Ukrainian tanks allegedly broke into the Russian-occupied village of Novooleksiivka and began blasting at Russian positions at close range, targeting houses and anything else the tank gunners could spot.
Photo Credit: Telegram @gostrikartuzy
Quickly attacked by FPV drones
The Ukrainian military news website Militarnyi reported that after hitting several houses, the tanks released a smokescreen and attempted to withdraw from the village but were harassed by Russian first-person view (FPV) drones.
Photo Credit: Telegram @gostrikartuzy
The drones targeted the second tank
Russian FPV drones tried to hit the second tank, which Militarnyi reported was covering the other tank, but the attacks failed thanks to the Ukrainian tanker’s tactics and forced the drones to hover and wait for the smokescreen to clear.
Photo Credit: Telegram @gostrikartuzy /Edited By The Daily Digest
The tankers outsmarted the drones
According to the account from Hostri Kartuzy, the Ukrainian tankers used their vastly superior experience to create a position using electronic warfare systems that wouldn’t allow the drones to hit the tanks, which is what forced the drones to hover in waiting.
Photo Credit: Telegram @gostrikartuzy
A second smokescreen was deployed
This allowed one of the Ukrainian tanks to fire off another smokescreen canister, which provided enough cover for the two tanks to escape the battle before they were critically hit by one of the Russian drones.
Photo Credit: Telegram @gostrikartuzy /Edited By The Daily Digest
Geolocated to Novooleksiivka
The location of the battle wasn’t published by Hostri Kartuzy in its post about the fight. However, the open-source intelligence Telegram research group WarArchive geolocated the battle to the village of Novooleksiivka.
Photo Credit: Telegram @gostrikartuzy
Novooleksiivka outside of Kurakhove
Novooleksiivka is close to the city of Kurakhove, an area of the frontline Russia had been making advances toward at the time of the tank battle according to Newsweek. Kurakhove is also 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the key Ukrainian city of Pokorvsk.
On route to an important city
Pokrovsk is an important Ukrainian logistics hub in the eastern portion of the country that Russian forces have been working to capture for months.
Wide-ranging war consequences
If Pokrovsk were to fall, it would have wide-ranging consequences for the war, though the city has held strong in the three months since the Hostri Kartuzy unit published its video.
The loss of Pokrovsk could be bad
“Capturing Pokrovsk could lead to bigger losses only if they are further compounded by lack of manpower, lack of artillery munitions, mistakes in command and control, and so on and so forth,” Konrad Muzyka, Director of Rochan Consulting told The Kyiv Post in September 2024.
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