Russian army bosses have sent golf carts and motorbikes to their frontline troops in Ukraine, in a desperate attempt to cover staggering losses to armoured vehicles.
The Kremlin has seen its army pulverised throughout its two-year military campaign in Ukraine.
The military has suffered over 500,000 casualties to personnel, as well as seeing its armoured equipment decimated.
Analysts from Oryx, an open-source investigative team, estimate Russia has lost over 15,000 pieces of military equipment.
8,000 of these are believed to be armoured fighting vehicles, of which almost three thousand are tanks.
These vehicles are essential in helping to transport troops quickly across battlefields.
In a desperate attempt to cover the staggering losses, Russia‘s top army brass have had to think outside the box and take drastic measures.
Golf carts along with dirt bikes from China and Belarus have been dispatched to assault units on the frontlines in Ukraine, earning them the moniker “Mad Max” battalions.
Initially, the motorbike assault groups suffered heavy losses, proving to be easy prey for Ukraine‘s drones and artillery.
Ukraine‘s 79th Air Assault Brigade wiped out eight motorbikes in one demolition job, sharing a video of their attack on social media .
In a Telegram post they wrote: “Our operators of shock drones did not appreciate the creativity and issued a speeding fine to each rider long before the finish line.
“During this assault, eight motorcycles and one BMP with infantry were destroyed.”
As a result, the Russians have started to add armour protective pieces to their new biker fleets.
The armour has grown in scale and complexity, as Russian engineers scramble to make the bikes and golf carts less vulnerable.
Photos circulating online depict assault bikes with sidecars and welded-on metal cages covering them.
However, the added weight of the armour may prove to severely affect the mobility and speed of the bikes.
As Forbes journalist David Axe noted: “It’s one thing to add a cage weighing a couple of tons to a 40-ton tank with a 1,000-horsepower engine, however.
“It’s another to pile armour onto a 1.5-ton all-terrain vehicle (ATV) or a 200-pound dirt bike, each producing less than a hundred horsepower.”
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