Despite being blocked by Russia on the main supply route to Bakhmut in the past, Ukraine can still find a way to bring weapons to the fire in the Donbas thanks to the special weapons that the West provides to Kyiv.
According to Forbes, Ukraine’s Western partners have pledged to support dozens of armored bridges to deal with Russian forces in a military campaign that has dragged on for more than a year. And the ongoing battle at Bakhmut shows why this weapon is so important.
Images from the battlefield show the Ukrainian Army’s motorized brigade speeding along a dirt road into Bakhmut and across an armored bridge over a narrow obstacle – a shallow stream or ravine. This is a bridge armored by Western aid to Ukraine.
This armor plays an important role to reinforce the Ukrainian garrison in the city besieged by Russia. There are only two main roads leading into Bakhmut from Ukrainian territory in the west. The southern road, T0504, was so close to the front lines that the Russian army could attack with machine guns, mortars, and grenade launchers.
The northern route, which passes through the Khromove settlement, is somewhat safer for Ukraine – especially after Kyiv’s counterattacks in recent days have driven Russian troops out of the area.
But nine months of non-stop fighting in and around Bakhmut has caused at least one of the fortified bridges to collapse on the O0506 road through Khromove. At this time, the Ukrainian army was forced to use the armored bridge to replace the destroyed structure.
Bridge armor is a weapon mounted on a tank chassis, with a folding bridge mounted on top. It can be deployed in a matter of minutes to bridge in a continuous attack condition.
Ukraine possesses a small number of MTU-20 bridging armor from the former Soviet Union based on the T-55 tank chassis. The MTU can bridge an 18m stretch and support vehicles weighing up to 60 tonnes.
However, the amount of MTU-20 in Ukraine’s arsenal is very small and unstable because it is too old. So, over the past year, the US and Germany have been providing Ukraine with new and more stable bridging armor. Germany has delivered to Ukraine 16 Biber armored vehicles, based on the Leopard 1 tank chassis, able to bridge an area of 20m long and with a payload of 50 tons. The US pledged to aid Ukraine with M-60 armored vehicles spanning an area 19.2m long and with a payload of 70 tons.
It is not clear which bridging armor Ukraine uses in the Bakhmut area. The US weapon may not have been deployed to the front yet, so it could be the MTU-20 or the Biber.
Bridging armor is a necessary weapon in a dangerous combat environment. It helps Ukraine to keep resupplying Bakhmut despite the huge risks Kyiv faces. It has still played a key role in Ukraine’s efforts to hold on to Bakhmut to the end over the past several months to drain Moscow’s energy. By maintaining supplies, Ukraine was able to ensure that Bakhmut could not fall.
