Russian Troops Are Ordered to Battle With ‘Shovels’: UK Protection Intel

• Russian troopers had been informed to combat with solely “firearms and shovels,” the Ministry of Defence mentioned
• The shovels are believed to be the MPL-50 entrenching device, designed in1869, mentioned the UK ministry.
• The order confirmed the “brutal and low-tech combating”  that now characterizes the warfare, mentioned the MoD.

Russian troopers are being ordered to combat Ukrainian forces with solely “firearms and shovels,” mentioned the UK’s Ministry of Defence. 

An intelligence briefing from the UK Ministry of Defence particulars that Russian reservists had been ordered to “assault a Ukrainian concrete robust level armed with solely firearms and shovels'” in February 2023. 

“The ‘shovels’ are doubtless entrenching instruments being employed for hand-to-hand fight,” mentioned the briefing.

It’s thought that the “shovels” in query are the famend MPL-50 entrenching instruments first designed in 1869. Soviet particular forces used it in close-quarters fight and as throwing weapons. The MPL-50 as a weapon had been “mythologized” in Russia, mentioned the MoD.

Utilizing the entrenching device, “little modified because it was designed in 1869,”  highlighted the brutal and low-tech combating which has come to characterize the year-long warfare between Russia and Ukraine, mentioned the MoD.

The rise in hand-to-hand fight in Ukraine was because of a declining variety of troops, artillery, and munition, it mentioned.

—Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 5, 2023

The intelligence briefing additionally raised the query of the welfare of Russian troops, stating {that a} reservist mentioned they weren’t “bodily or psychologically” prepared for the warfare. 

The combating skill and morale of Putin’s mobilized troops had been highlighted in earlier intelligence from the Ministry of Defence, saying they had been referred to as to combat regardless of having “critical, continual well being situations.” 

Certainly, it has been reported that Russian forces have been deploying “barrier troops”  or “blocking items” to shoot Russian troopers who defect and desert the warfare. 

Based on a temporary from the Heart for Strategic & Worldwide Research (CSIS), between 60,000 and 70,000 Russian troopers have been killed on the battlefield in Ukraine because the invasion started on February 24 2022.