They had prepared a kill zone farther along a dirt road that the tanks were rumbling down. In Vuhledar, by last week Russia had lost so many machines to sustain armored assaults that they had changed tactics and resorted only to infantry attacks, Ukrainian commanders said. Factories in the Ural Mountains have churned out tanks by the thousands. The Russian army has focused on, and even mythologized, tank warfare for decades for its redolence of Russian victories over the Nazis in World War II. In one indication that Russia is running short of experienced tank commanders, Ukrainian soldiers said they captured a medic who had been reassigned to operate a tank. Their spots were filled with newly conscripted soldiers, unschooled in Ukraine’s tactics for ambushing columns. Many of their most elite units had been left in shambles from earlier fighting. Lack of expertise also bedeviled the Russians.

“We studied the roads they used, then hid and waited” to shoot in ambushes, Sergeant Knignitsky said. Ukraine does not disclose how many weapons it loses.

That figure could not be independently verified. Ukraine’s military said Russia had lost at least 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers in the battle. Blown up on mines, hit with artillery or obliterated by anti-tank missiles, the charred hulks of Russian armored vehicles now litter farm fields all about Vuhledar, according to Ukrainian military drone footage.

Tanks modern age side shot