{"id":104573,"date":"2025-05-15T21:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T21:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/104573\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T21:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T21:49:08","slug":"russian-bike-assaults-tend-to-get-the-riders-killed-especially-when-they-try-jumping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/104573\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Bike Assaults Tend To Get The Riders Killed\u2014Especially When They Try Jumping"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"color-body light-text\">A Russian bike troop misses a jump.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian defense ministry capture<\/p>\n<p>As the Russian military loses more armored vehicles in Ukraine than it can immediately replace, and sends more troops into battle on motorcycles, there are tragic consequences for the riders.<\/p>\n<p>Not only are bike troops totally exposed to Ukrainian drones, artillery and mines\u2014they may also be tempted to try feats of motorcycle aerobatics that would be difficult in peacetime, and are nearly impossible on the battlefield.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bayraktar_1love\/status\/1922927853999374513\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bayraktar_1love\/status\/1922927853999374513\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/x.com\/bayraktar_1love\/status\/1922927853999374513\" aria-label=\"As a Ukrainian drone observed\">As a Ukrainian drone observed<\/a> on or just before Thursday, a Russian bike soldier raced, in broad daylight, across the no-man\u2019s-land somewhere along the 700-mile front line of Russia\u2019s 39-month wider war on Ukraine. His luck held, at first. No mines or shells exploded. No first-person-view drones swooped down.<\/p>\n<p>But then he neared the simplest possible defense: a hole in the ground. Specifically, a long anti-tank ditch seemingly around 20 feet across and 20 feet deep. Apparently confident in his bike-handling, the rider accelerated up the loose dirt piled up on the edge of the trench, clearly aiming to jump the trench.<\/p>\n<p>He fell short\u2014and died, or was badly injured, in the resulting crash.<\/p>\n<p>Stunt riders such as the late Evel Knievel routinely jump their motorcycles hundreds of feet. But they usually do so after careful planning\u2014and rarely on loose dirt ramps. In theory, leaping a 20-foot gap from a 45-degree ramp should be straightforward if the bike is traveling 20 miles per hour or so.<\/p>\n<p>But the \u201cramp\u201d in this case was a haphazardly piled berm meant to impede armored vehicles\u2014not boost a speeding biker. Jumping from sand or loose dirt requires careful handling, as bikes tend to nose up on that kind of surface. Mastering the handling \u201cthis takes many years of riding to get nailed,\u201d one biker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thumpertalk.com\/forums\/topic\/999445-jumping-in-sand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/www.thumpertalk.com\/forums\/topic\/999445-jumping-in-sand\/\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.thumpertalk.com\/forums\/topic\/999445-jumping-in-sand\/\" aria-label=\"explained\">explained<\/a> on a popular motorcyclists\u2019 forum.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian bike troopers\u2019 tragic crash made him just another statistic. Most recent Russian bike assaults have ended disastrously for the riders. On April 17, an unprecedented 150 Russian motorcyclists\u2014reinforced by additional troops riding on all-terrain vehicles\u2014attacked positions held by the Ukrainian 14th Chervona Kalyna Brigade around Myrolyubivka, a few miles east of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>The bike assault ended in disaster for the Russians. The 14th Chervona Kalyna Brigade \u201cdelivered a decisive blow against waves of Russian equipment and manpower,\u201d the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security of Ukraine <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/StratcomCentre\/status\/1912934906553905176\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/StratcomCentre\/status\/1912934906553905176\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/x.com\/StratcomCentre\/status\/1912934906553905176\" aria-label=\"reported\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite the scale of the assault, Ukrainian troops held their ground and repelled the entire attack with discipline and precision.\u201d The Ukrainian brigade claimed heavy Russian losses, including at least 240 troops killed or wounded and 96 motorcycles knocked out.<\/p>\n<p>But the bike assaults occasionally work\u2014and, to the Kremlin, an occasional success justifies frequent failure. It\u2019s standard practice, as the wider war grinds into its fourth year, for Russian regiments to send under-trained, unprotected troops on \u201creconnaissance-by-force\u201d missions in the early hours of a planned offensive\u2014often on motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles or even electric scooters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are ordered to advance towards where they assess Ukrainian positions to be, conducting reconnaissance by drawing fire,\u201d Nick Reynolds and Jack Watling explained in<a href=\"https:\/\/static.rusi.org\/tactical-developments-third-year-russo-ukrainian-war-february-2205.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/static.rusi.org\/tactical-developments-third-year-russo-ukrainian-war-february-2205.pdf\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/static.rusi.org\/tactical-developments-third-year-russo-ukrainian-war-february-2205.pdf\" aria-label=\"a recent study\"> a recent study<\/a> for the Royal United Services Institute in London.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the group encounters resistance, Russian commanders assess where they believe the best lines of approach are, and in particular, where the boundaries between defensive units lie,\u201d Reynolds and Watling added. \u201cIf Ukrainian positions are positively identified, sections are persistently sent forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the Russian 39th Motor Rifle Brigade <a href=\"https:\/\/cdsdailybrief.substack.com\/p\/russias-war-on-ukraine-050525?utm_source=substack&amp;publication_id=1598923&amp;post_id=162910444&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;utm_campaign=email-share&amp;triggerShare=true&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=7jgcu&amp;triedRedirect=true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/cdsdailybrief.substack.com\/p\/russias-war-on-ukraine-050525?utm_source=substack&amp;publication_id=1598923&amp;post_id=162910444&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;utm_campaign=email-share&amp;triggerShare=true&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=7jgcu&amp;triedRedirect=true\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/cdsdailybrief.substack.com\/p\/russias-war-on-ukraine-050525?utm_source=substack&amp;publication_id=1598923&amp;post_id=162910444&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;utm_campaign=email-share&amp;triggerShare=true&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=7jgcu&amp;triedRedirect=true\" aria-label=\"found an under-manned weak spot\">found an under-manned weak spot<\/a> in the Ukrainian trench outside the village of Malynivka, just outside Pokrovsk. Drones knocked out counterattacking Ukrainian armored vehicles, and Russian infantry captured that segment of the trench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Russian bike troop misses a jump. Ukrainian defense ministry capture As the Russian military loses more armored&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[20492,332,31864,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-104573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-motorcycles","9":"tag-russia","10":"tag-russian-losses","11":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114514058484431539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}