Bushmasters helping Ukraine are battered but going strong a year into full invasion

A Bushmaster being loaded onto a plane to be shipped to Europe last year. Picture supplied by the Australian Defence Force/Kate Czerny

February 23rd | Tom O Callaghan

Engineers likely never expected a destroyed Bushmaster to become a war trophy outside Moscow when it rolled off the production line half a world away.

But that is just one place the heavily armoured military vehicle appears to have ended up at the one year mark of Russia's full scale Ukraine invasion.

The Bendigo Advertiser has been tracking what has happened to Bushmasters, which are built in Bendigo, Victoria, since Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy first mentioned the machines in an address to parliament last March.

One unofficial tally puts the destroyed ones at seven, though there is reason to think an eighth has been taken out.

Some videos posted to social media in this, the most viral online war in history, show what appear to be drone images of burnt out Bushmasters along forested roads or in fields.

Perhaps the most unusual ones are purportedly from a military symposium Russia held last August at Patriots Park, the sprawling tribute to Russian might that its president Vladimir Putin opened in the mid-2010s.

The social media images appear legitimate and are backed up by photos contributed to media outlets like Reuters and Getty Images.

And yet, Russia's Ukrainian adventures over the past year have resulted in little of the glory on show elsewhere in Patriots Park.

The 90 Bushmasters earmarked for Ukraine remain the most prominent symbol of Australia's support at the dawn of the 12th month of the full invasion.

And they are still protecting troops in some of the most violent battles of the conflict.

Elite soldiers use Bushmasters to plug holes

Last week, a photojournalist captured an image of a Bushmaster near Bakhmut, one of the towns Ukrainian forces have refused to bend despite wave after wave of attacks.

In the foreground of the photo stood members of Ukraine's 80th Air Assault Brigade.

The same brigade was using Bushmasters in the summer and autumn, when troops broke through Russian lines to reclaim huge swathes of territory.

Victorian senator David Van last year spent time with the 80th and their Bushmasters when he visited Ukraine on a fact-finding mission.

"Their job in the Ukraine armed forces was effectively plugging holes [when I was in Ukraine]. So when the Russians tried to break the line the 80th would be sent to stop them," he said.

Senator Van thinks Bushmasters could be incorporated into the new tactics Ukrainian troops have been training for over the northern winter.

Those strategies rely less on trenches and artillery duels in favour of combined army and air attacks.

"The main battle tanks would do the heavy lifting. Then the infantry fighting vehicles would go in, drop troops off to get into a fight, protect them with their guns, then get them back out again," Senator Van said.

That said, Ukraine might prefer other vehicles designed specifically for these sorts of infantry attacks.

Bushmasters are "really only meant to take troops from town to town, along the lines and protect them from landmines and improvised explosive devices," Senator Van said.

That has not stopped outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainians using them for attacks or speaking highly of how they handle.

There is another reason they might not play a prominent role in any new tactics Ukraine uses this year.

It has taken the better part of a year to get many of the promised Bushmasters into the war zone.

Could more Bushmasters be bound for Ukraine?

The Australian Defence Force does not like to give out the exact number of Bushmasters that have arrived in Ukraine at the request of its allies.

It was obvious last year that the rate of deliveries was complicated by a stretched Australian military juggling missions to Europe with operations domestically and through South East Asia.

Of the 90 Bushmasters earmarked for Ukraine, somewhat more than a third had been delivered within eight months of the first three departing.

Senator Van - a Liberal opposition member - asked for an update last week when quizzing defence officials in parliament.

He wanted to know whether Australia could have delivered all Bushmasters faster if they had been sent by boat, and specifically by commercial shipping, rather than military aeroplane.

Defence secretary Greg Moriarty told him Australia had looked at a range of delivery options.

"We've developed a plan and we are implementing that plan," he said.

Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko was not concerned by any perceived delays

"We are expecting all 90 to be delivered soon and I think those 90 are important at this stage," he said.

He said Ukraine had worked closely with Australia when challenges had arisen over the past year.

"They expedited the delivery of certain equipment, so it's all sorted," Mr Myroshnychenko said.

Ukraine has made no secret of its desire for more Bushmasters and the spare parts needed to maintain its existing fleet.

How many more is hard to gauge.

The embattled country needs all its military supplies "yesterday" given the intensity and scale of the conflict, Mr Myroshnychenko said.

"You've seen the tanks and armoured personnel vehicles being committed to Ukraine. All will be used in one way or another, right, in a co-ordinated effort to push Russians out," he said.

See Original Article Here: https://www.braidwoodtimes.com.au/story/8097705/how-a-bushmaster-bound-for-ukraine-ended-up-in-a-russian-theme-park/?cs=356