A Russian pack animal.
Via Vodogray
No, there’s not yet any evidence Russian troops are about to ride into battle on hoverboards: two-wheeled kids’ toys that don’t actually hover, but do speed along on internal gyroscopes to keep their riders upright and balanced.
But that doesn’t mean that, after losing 15,500 armored vehicles and other pieces of heavy equipment in Ukraine, the Russians aren’t resorting to desperate measures to keep their army in Ukraine moving.
It was understandably tempting to conclude some Russian troops planned to ride hoverboards on their next assault. A video that circulated online on Sunday depicts Russians loading brightly-colored hoverboards onto a military truck. “When there’s nothing to drive … ” one laughs.
But it seems most likely the Russians stole the toys from Ukrainian civilians and are taking them home as prizes—or to modify into the wheelbase for a kind of experimental explosive drone that first appeared last year. On the rough, snowy terrain of the Ukrainian battlefield, a hoverboard is far less effective transport for infantry than simply walking.
And to be clear, many Russians are walking—or limping—into the fight. Increasingly bereft of modern vehicles, Russian infantry now routinely attack on foot. The luckier ones ride into battle in civilian compact cars. Only the absolute luckiest can count on modern armored transportation.
Meanwhile, Russian logisticians are equally short of motor transport—and have taken to resupplying combat formations via donkey. Horses are also making more appearances on the Russian side of the front line.
The U.S. Army occasionally dabbled in donkey transport during its long misadventure in Afghanistan. And the U.S. Marines have institutionalized packed animals for use in certain extreme contingencies.
But the Russians aren’t merely experimenting with donkeys for the kinds of rough terrain that actually lends itself to pack animals. No, they’re deploying the animals widely, and in clear response to the accelerating de-mechanization of the Russian army as its costly wider war on Ukraine grinds into its fourth year.
That same de-mechanization is plainly evident in the slowing pace of Russian advances in Ukraine. Russia’s transport shortage is so severe that, yes, some observers glimpsed Russians with hoverboards—and reasonably concluded the Russians plan to ride the toys into battle.
