In yet another example of ordinary micromobility vehicles being drafted into military use in Russia’s yearslong attack on Ukraine, a new video has emerged showing a failed Russian assault led partially on electric scooters.
In a Russian assault on the industrial city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, several Russian soldiers can be seen riding off-road electric kickscooters down a scarred and cratered road.
They stop to carry the scooters over the worst sections of broken road, before continuing on. One soldier appears to fall off of his scooter after hitting debris. He stands back up, rights the scooter, and the group rides on.
Above them, a small Ukrainian drone watches their every move.
After reaching a damaged, abandoned one-room structure, the Russian soldiers toss their scooters aside. With its roof missing, the drone easily watches the soldiers descend a tunnel a shaft in the floor. Seconds later, a Ukrainian munition destroys the structure.
It’s becoming a more common scene, Lt. Col. Dmytro Pavlenko-Kryzheshevskyi explained to the New York Times. Pavlenko-Kryzheshevskyi, the Chief of Intelligence for the 12th Special Operations Brigade Azov that repelled the assault, described how the scooters have grown more widespread in Russian attacks.
“Hitting just one piece of equipment carrying 15 people, well, that’s possible, it can be done quite easily. But when those 15 people are riding electric scooters, then that’s a very big problem.”
Russian troops have been met with staggering losses during their relentless assault on Ukraine, and the adoption of smaller vehicles may be part of a tactic to shake up Ukrainian defenders. The continued loss of tanks and armored personnel carriers (APCs) may have also played a role in Russia’s shift to adopt scooters, motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, and other typically civilian micromobility vehicles for military use.
Unlike Russia, which appears to have moved towards micromobility vehicles partly out of necessity, Ukraine has used such vehicles for years in more targeted operations.
In 2022, we watched as Ukrainian electric bicycle manufacturer Delfast’s electric bikes were outfitted for use as a mobile platform for carrying NLAW rockets used to destroy Russian tanks.
The Ukrainians have also used powerful electric bikes as silent, stealthy vehicles for inserting sniper teams at the front lines, allowing soldiers to emplace quickly and effectively.
An electric kickscooter was recently rigged with explosives and used to assassinate Russian Lt. Gen. Igor Anatolyevich Kirillov, the head of the Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear defense troops of the Russian military. Ukrainian security services claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred outside Kirillov’s building in a Moscow neighborhood.
For its part, Russia has also employed non-conventional vehicles, though to much lesser effect. For example, its golf cart-mounted soldiers fared much worse when attempting to storm Ukrainian positions last year.
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