Russian troops were targeted by Ukrainian drones after being caught trying to ride into battle on Chinese-made e-scooters.

The strange attempted assault featured three soldiers of Vladimir Putin scrambling across a muddy field, pulling their vehicles along.

But their desperate journey was caught on camera by the same drones that ended up taking them out.

The dramatic clip shows footage of the drone scouting their movements before homing in on the unsuspecting troops.

One soldier is seen getting stuck in the grassy terrain, forcing him to lift his scooter over a patch of land.

In recent times, Russian military leaders have been opting for smaller modes of transport like scooters, motorcycles, and quadbikes to maneuver through challenging terrains at the frontline.

Additionally, dispersing troops helps lower the chances of numerous casualties from drone strikes, an improvement from situations where soldiers would be grouped together, like in a tank.

Another similar incident was filmed in Toretsk, in eastern Ukraine, last December, where a Ukrainian unit chased scrambling Russians down a cratered road with drones.

Lt. Col. Dmytro Pavlenko-Kryzheshevskyi, the chief of intelligence for the 12th Special Operations Brigade Azov, said Russian troops were now swarming the frontlines in ever-greater numbers, with the use of e-scoooters commonplace.

He told the New York Times: ‘Hitting just one piece of equipment carrying 15 people, well, that’s possible, it can be done quite easily.

‘But when those 15 people are riding electric scooters, then that’s a very big problem. 

‘For them, it’s quite normal to use 150 to 200 soldiers at a time for offensive actions.

‘It’s important to understand that they have significant reserves.’ 

Last year, an attempt by Russian infantry to assault a Ukrainian position while riding on golf carts also ended in disaster, with all five unconventional war vehicles destroyed.

The shift to smaller vehicles may also reflect the fact that Russia lost an estimated 1,400 tanks last year, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

The think tank suggested that since the start of the war in 2022, they have lost 14,000 main battle tanks (MBTs), infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and armored personnel carriers (APCs).

They said that while Russia have tried to replenish their diminishing arsenal, they could run out of tanks entirely by the end 2026. 

Putin’s army has also suffered the largest troop losses since World War Two during its invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence.

The Ministry of Defence said that up to 250,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since 2022, with a total of 900,000 casualties.

The beleaguered army has also resorted to using horses and donkeys to transport troops and supplies to the battlefield.

Lt. Gen. Viktor Sobolev, a member of the Russian State Duma’s Defense Committee, told Russian media that the animals were both effective and cheap to use. 

Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, said last month that the tactic was ‘rolling back to the times of the Russian Empire – complete with cavalry’. 

Russian forces seized around 1,300 square miles of land in 2024, equivalent to less than one per cent of Ukrainian territory. 

Ukraine has also utilised micromobility vehicles in the war, albeit in more targeted operations.

In December, security forces assassinated a Russian general with a bomb attached to an electric scooter which exploded outside his Moscow apartment.

In 2022, redesigned electric bikes were used to carry anti-tank rockets to the frontline, according to Bloomberg.

Ukrainian snipers have also taken advantage of quieter electic motorcycles to travel stealthily to precise positions.

But while Russia’s armed forces are heavily depleted, Ukraine could also be caught short if Western allies reduce or stop military aid entirely.

US President Donald Trump temporarily suspended all American assistance to Ukraine this month after a heated disagreement with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump has vowed to broker peace between the two warring nations, but has only achieved a partial ceasefire in which strikes on energy infrastructure and confrontations in the Black Sea have been paused. 

Earlier today Russian forces pounded a Ukrainian port with several waves of drones in an overnight attack while a critical Russian gas pipeline blew up into a 300ft fireball.

Putin’s troops carpet bombed the port city of Odessa with drone attacks overnight, injuring at least three people.