Russia using cheaper drones in Ukraine attacks

 ISW:

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Russia appears to be increasingly supplementing the use of Shahed-131/136 drones with cheaper and lighter domestically produced drone variants during strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure. Russian media speculated on October 23 that Russian forces used new long-range "Italmas" drones and Italmas variants for the first time in Ukraine during a drone attack on Kyiv Oblast.[3] Russian sources noted that Italmas drones are lighter than Shaheds and are harder to detect and shoot down. Russian milbloggers noted that Italmas drones are cheaper than Shaheds, which means that they can be more widely manufactured and used, but that they deliver lighter payloads, which restricts their usefulness in isolation.[4] Russian sources noted, therefore, that Russian forces will likely use the Italmas drones in tandem with Shaheds.[5] ISW previously assessed that Russia is likely trying to expand and diversify its arsenal of drones, missiles, and guided bombs for strikes against Ukrainian critical infrastructure in advance of the fall-winter season, and increased use of Italmas drones is likely part of the wider munitions diversification effort.[6]

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Lighter drones would necessarily mean lighter payloads.  That is probably why Russia will continue to use the Iran-designed Shahed drones. All drones are cheaper than using manned aircraft which also exposes a limited number of aviators and expensive aircraft.

See, also:

‘None of it made any sense:’ Understanding Russia’s disastrous offensive on Avdiivka

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Starting on Oct. 9, dozens of Russian armored vehicles backed by thousands of infantry personnel, artillery, and air power, were launched at the flanks of the city of Avdiivka, a Ukrainian stronghold city still standing since 2014 just outside occupied Donetsk.

Two weeks in, the offensive has been an undisputed failure so far. Russian gains have amounted to little more than a handful of treelines on the flanks.

Instead of the rapid advances Moscow was hoping for, the Russian attacking force achieved fame as the main characters in a seemingly endless stream of Ukrainian drone footage of destroyed Russian armor in the fields around the city.

The scenes captured from the air are dramatic, showing tens of millions of dollars worth Russian equipment falling victim to Ukrainian artillery, anti-tank fire, and FPV (first-person view) kamikaze drones. Videos filmed by Russian and Ukrainian soldiers on the ground show dozens of dead bodies scattered among the destroyed vehicles.

“It was pure chaos, the amount of troops they were sending into the assault was pretty ridiculous,” said Ryan O’Leary, the American commander of Chosen Company, an assault unit of foreign volunteer fighters in the 59th Mechanized Brigade, to the Kyiv Independent.

“It doesn't seem like the Russians even knew what they were doing, it doesn't seem like it was planned out very well, at least the ground troops didn't have a clue.”

On Oct. 19, after a brief lull in the fighting, Russia sent fresh waves of armored vehicles at Avdiivka, with the same result: heavy losses in heavy battles with very little gains to speak of.

The scale of the carnage that day was revealed in the daily report on Russian losses the next morning.

The General Staff tallied 1,380 personnel, 55 tanks, and 120 armored fighting vehicles as lost by Russian forces that day alone, all record numbers since the military began releasing official figures in March 2022.

The amount of geolocated visual evidence, backed by reports on Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels left no doubt that the bulk of these losses came in the Avdiivka sector.
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And:

 Ukraine-Russia war - live: Putin pushes more soldiers to frontline despite failing offensive

And:

 Ukrainian and Russian forces clashed 82 times in a single day

And:

 Russian morale has broken against the steel hearts of Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has been shocking and distressing to a collective Western audience which has not seen industrialised warfare in at least three generations. It has seen grinding, murderous brutality in which men have gone into combat, taken heavy losses, and then the survivors – after a short break, if they are lucky – have been thrown into combat again and again until soldiers come to believe that death is certain.

It is very hard to maintain any spirit of aggressive attack among such soldiers, especially if they are unwilling conscripts who have no interest in the war. The latest British intelligence update says that Russia is now reliant on specially set up “Shtorm-Z” units, made up of convicts and regular soldiers assigned as a punishment, to conduct offensive operations: that is, to make attacks. The British analysts go on to add that Russia has “extreme difficulty in generating combat infantry capable of effective offensive operations”.

In effect, ordinary Russian troops’ hearts have been broken: the only Russian soldiers who can be forced to get out of their trenches and attack are those of the “Shtorm-Z” units. These units may once have been meant to be elite, but they are now effectively penal battalions in which every man has been sentenced to death.
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