The problem, as one might guess, is that motorcycles offer almost zero protection compared to armoured personnel carriers. The Russians count on the element of surprise coupled with the speed of the bikes. Sent in under heavy artillery bombardment, sometimes they do get through, although at least anecdotally this is the exception rather than the rule. So not quite a kamikaze mission but pretty damn close to playing Russian roulette by doing something so reckless.
So it's 2024 and we're treated to the spectacle of Russian troops speeding toward fortified Ukrainian positions on motorcycles only to be cut down quickly by machine gun fire or FPV droves. Like something straight out of Mad Max.
Source: Forbes
After losing nearly 15,000 combat vehicles in the first two years of its wider war on Ukraine, Russia got desperate.
Production of new vehicles, combined with the restoration of old vehicles from long-term storage, couldn’t keep pace with the monthly loss of more than 600 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.
That’s why, in the early months of the third year of the wider war, more Russian troops have been riding into battle in trucks, open-top golf carts and—more recently—motorcycles.
The growing number of unprotected—or at best, minimally protected—vehicles on the Russian side of the front line doesn’t mean Russian forces can’t win battles against ammunition-starved, understaffed Ukrainian brigades.
But the devolution of Russian vehicles does underscore one of the Kremlin’s most serious challenges in a grinding war that officials in Moscow once claimed would end in Russian victory in mere days. “While Russia remains a serious battlefield threat, [its] ability to replace lost armored vehicles is limited,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight explained.
Armies have been riding on motorcycles for more than a century—in other words, as long as motorcycles have existed. A fast, maneuverable and inexpensive motorbike is an efficient way for a courier or scout to get around the battlefield.
The problem for Russian troops in 2024 is that, running low on purpose-built armored vehicles as well as larger civilian-style vehicles, they’re riding their unprotected bikes directly at Ukrainian positions—just like they started doing with their roofless Desertcross 1000 all-terrain vehicles a few months ago. “Motorcycles are replacing golf carts,” Ukrainian war correspondent Yuriy Butusov noted.
Ukrainian drones capture the spectacles and add a soundtrack to the frontline mayhem.
