Russia’s Log Tank Actually Worked. Until It Didn’t.

Desperate and enterprising Russian troops crafted an up-armored assault vehicle out of an old tank, sheet metal and logs and deployed it as part of a wider mechanized attack on Ukrainian positions around the town of Velyka Novosilka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

Incredibly, the log tank—one of many makeshift rides the increasingly vehicle-starved Russians have constructed—worked … until it didn’t. According to the Estonian analyst WarTranslated, the improvised vehicle “withstood drone attacks but succumbed to modern artillery.” A Ukrainian drone observed the vehicle, immobilized and abandoned on a dirt track outside Velyka Novosilka.

The log tank’s endurance in the face of relentless drone attack parallels the plight of an Ukrainian Leopard 1A5 tank that, thanks to its own add-on armor, recently survived at least eight drone strikes before finally suffering catastrophic damage.

Layers of extra armor, whether metal or wood, can blunt the effects of the tiny FPV drones and their small warheads, which usually weigh no more than a few pounds. But that same armor might not stop a 100-pound artillery shell packed with 25 pounds of explosive fill.

The log tank was unusually well-made for a do-it-yourself Russian assault vehicle. The troops who built the vehicle proudly posted a video of their work. The “technical device for transporting personnel” boasted sheet-metal sides covered in thick rubber. “Between the armored capsule and the external lattice armor, logs are placed,” one soldier explained. “The roof is welded with sheet metal.” The hinged door was reinforced with bricks.

All that armor was enough to deflect FPV drones, which fly just a few tens of miles per hour and often strike their targets along the sides. But artillery shells streak in nearly vertically at a speed of a mile per second—and can punch right through a vehicle’s top armor, which is usually the thinnest.

The log tank’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. After gradually marching on Velyka Novosilka from the fallen fortress town of Vuhledar since late last year, the Russians made their final push into Velyka Novosilka in recent days. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies marked the town as “captured.”

It was, and continues to be, a costly effort. After entering Velyka Novosilka and consolidating their control over the town, Russian regiments kept attacking to the north and west. A large Russian assault on Sunday morning involving around 20 vehicles reportedly failed after the Ukrainian knocked out at least seven of the vehicles.