Under intense Russian shelling, Bradley fighting vehicles — supplied to Ukraine by the U.S. — are now playing a critical role in pushing back the Russians. New video from Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade shows Bradleys barreling in to provide cover to a group of pinned down soldiers. Other video captures the moment when soldiers step out of the armored vehicles onto newly liberated territory. There, in the village of Robotyne, they're embraced by civilians who've been under Russian occupation since the start of the war.
All summer long, this is what Ukrainians, and their allies, yearned to see: Advanced, Western-provided equipment — operated by Ukrainians trained by NATO — finally producing some results.
The Institute For the Study of War assessed on Tuesday that the 47th Mechanized Brigade broke through Russia's first lines of defense to retake a swath of land in the Zaporizhzhia region on the Eastern front.
The use of the Bradleys and other NATO equipment is notable given that, at the start of the counteroffensive in June, Ukraine's first assaults ended in disaster — including the loss of valuable Western-supplied armor worth millions of dollars.
After that, Kyiv informed its Western allies they planned to take a much slower, more cautious approach to save lives and equipment
Now the Bradleys are reappearing, and gains are being made. But for Ukraine to achieve its counteroffensive objectives, they'll need to breach several more layers of Russian minefields and entrenchments. The risk-reward calculus is being assessed and reassessed with each new move of the counteroffensive.
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