Ukraine Uses ANCIENT ROMAN Tactics to WIPE OUT Russian Troops… 66-to-1 KILL RATIO!

Ukraine just turned back the clock—using an ancient Roman tactic to devastating effect. With caltrops and modern warfare fused into a brutal strategy, Ukraine’s 63rd Mechanized Brigade halted a Russian advance near Lyman, achieving a staggering 66-to-one kill ratio. Low-tech meets high-impact as improvised defenses cripple motorbike units and funnel troops into deadly traps. This is how smart, strategic warfare is flipping the script on Putin’s summer offensive.

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It’s another day, and another example of Russian 
President Vladimir Putin’s forces failing against Ukraine’s steadfast defense. Only this time 
is different. We’ve grown so used to hearing about Ukraine’s many innovations in modern 
weaponry, especially in the drone space, that it’s almost easy to forget that the country 
is more than capable of going back to basics to take out Putin’s forces. That’s what it did on 
July 28. Ukraine just used an ancient Roman tactic to wipe out Russian troops. And this wasn’t any 
old tactic…it helped Ukraine score a 66-to-one kill ratio against Putin’s forces. The name of the 
tactic is simple: Caltrops. Historic Jamestowne describes caltrops as small iron devices with 
multiple sharp points designed to always leave one spike facing upward. Dating back to the Roman 
era, these weapons were scattered across roads and battlefields to cripple horses, injure soldiers, 
and slow the movement of advancing enemy forces, making them an effective early form of area 
denial. Calvary was the big focus. Where a human would be able to see caltrops and step 
around them, a soldier on horseback didn’t have quite the same level of visibility. And 
even if they did, the beasts those soldiers rode, though fast, weren’t quite maneuverable enough 
to avoid the spiky metal balls underneath their hooves. The effects were devastating. No matter 
how it’s thrown, a caltrop always comes to rest on three of its four spikes, leaving the last spike 
jutting up into the air. For a horse, one misstep on such a spike was enough to damage a hoof and 
potentially cause it to rear up. The rider would fall off. The horse would bolt. And suddenly, the 
enemy cavalry was rendered ineffective. Think of it like forcing horses to walk on the nastiest 
pieces of Lego you’ve ever seen, and you get the gist of the tactic. The Lieber Institute at West 
Point noted in a May 2024 article that caltrops are effective even in modern warfare. Why? 
Beyond providing literal spikes that can slow down advancing forces, caltrops are cheap to make 
and easy to deploy, making them a brilliant tool in modern area denial. It also points out that 
caltrops are classified as non-lethal weapons because they’re rarely deployed to kill directly. 
They may cause injuries that could lead to death, but their main purpose is to slow down an enemy. 
All of which brings us to Ukraine and the big question we’ll answer in this video: How did 
Ukraine just use these spiky metal balls to devastate Putin’s forces? To answer that question, 
we need to take you to Lyman (Lie‑muhn) in Ukraine. Euromaidan Press reported on July 28 
that Lyman is subject to a Russian advance, likely as part of Putin’s summer offensive 
against Ukraine. Putin wants Lyman. Located in the Donetsk (Doh-NETSk) oblast, Lyman serves 
as the administrative center for the Lyman urban hromada (Hroh‑mah‑duh), which is part of the 
Kramatorsk (krah‑mah‑TORSK) region. It’s a small city. Lyman had about 20,000 inhabitants before 
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and occupied the city in late May 2022. Despite 
its relatively small population, Lyman has long held military‑strategic importance. Established in 
the late 1600s as a fortified frontier settlement, it guarded the southern edge of the Russian 
Empire’s territory in the Donbas region. Known locally as “The Gates of Donbas,” Lyman was a 
vital export and transit hub, with its railway junction carrying regional commodities like coal, 
salt, and sand across Donetsk Oblast. Before the war, roughly 35% of residents worked in rail 
transport and nearly 18% in industry—underscoring Lyman’s role as a logistical choke point. That’s 
why Putin wants the city. Beyond the hope that the capture of Lyman will bring him one step closer to 
taking the entire Donetsk region, Putin hopes that taking this city will remove a key logistical hub 
from Ukraine’s hands. That’s why the city has been a battle zone for much of the war, with Russia 
initially taking it during the early months of Putin’s invasion before Ukraine managed to reclaim 
the city back in October 2022. On July 28, Russian forces made yet another attempt to advance into 
the city. Ukraine was prepared. Euromaidan Press reports that one of the country’s brigades found 
an ingenious use for Ancient Roman caltrops that, when combined with the warfare elements, allowed 
the brigade to sabotage Russia’s advance. Ukraine used caltrops to create a nearly impassable kill 
zone close to Lyman. A zone that Euromaidan Press reports is claiming 66 Russian soldiers for every 
one Ukrainian casualty. Putin’s forces should have known they were fighting a losing battle even 
before Ukraine unleashed its brilliant caltrops strategy. Despite holding a substantial bridgehead 
across the Zherebets (zhe‑reh‑BETS) River, Euromaidan Press says, they were too few in 
number and had been critically overstretched while participating in Putin’s summer offensive in 
Donetsk. Russia’s president has dedicated 110,000 of his soldiers to that offensive, The Kyiv 
Independent points out. However, most of those soldiers are being dedicated to taking the vital 
Ukrainian logistical hub of Pokrovsk (Poh-KrovSk), leaving units elsewhere in Donetsk with far too 
few soldiers for what Putin wants them to achieve. Still, Russia’s depleted force was ordered to 
push on into Lyman. After all, what are a few more casualties to Putin in a war where he has already 
lost over 1.05 million troops at a rate of about 1,000 per day to his cause? Russia’s strategy 
for Lyman is simple, Euromaidan Press points out. Putin’s depleted troops know that they can’t 
attack the city directly from their position near the Zherebets River. A poor logistical situation 
ensures that can’t happen. Instead, Russia’s soldiers are gunning for Torske (TOR‑skeh). 
By breaching the defensive lines around that settlement, Russia hopes it will be able to use 
Torske as a launching pad for a more direct attack on Lyman. Ukraine knows precisely what Russia 
is planning. And standing in the way of Putin’s forces is the 63rd Mechanized Brigade. For months, 
that battle-hardened Ukrainian brigade has managed to repel every effort Russia’s soldiers have made 
to draw close to Lyman. Favorable terrain has been used to the brigade’s advantage. Large reservoirs 
to the north of Torske allow the brigade to limit Russia’s maneuverability. That’s important for two 
reasons. These reservoirs are perfectly positioned for preventing Russia’s soldiers from flanking the 
Ukrainian defenders, Euromaidan Press notes. Plus, they allow Ukraine’s defenders to funnel those 
soldiers down specific paths, isolating Russia’s frontal assaults as they’re guided into pre-set 
kill zones. Russia doesn’t have it much better to the south or Torske. There lies a dense forested 
area that is already incredibly difficult for Russia’s soldiers to navigate. It’s into this 
southern region that Ukraine is funneling its enemy. The 63rd Mechanized Brigade has created 
deep fire control zones in these southern forests, allowing them to create chokepoints via which 
they can assault Russia’s infantry and the motorbike squadrons that Putin has increasingly 
turned toward in 2025 in a desperate attempt to provide his troops with something they can use to 
evade Ukraine’s drones. It’s in countering these motorbike squadrons that Ukraine’s caltrops come 
into play. Euromaidan Press highlights the ancient uses of caltrops. These old horse hoof puncturing 
tools were used by the Romans to force enemy troops into wide open spaces, allowing them to 
be saturated by projectiles while they were mired down and defenseless. Back then, a horde of arrows 
would have descended on any soldier unlucky enough to be forcibly diverted by the caltrops. Today, 
Ukraine is using them in a similar way, though with a modern twist. To counter Russia’s motorbike 
forces, Ukraine is deploying drones laden with caltrops into the regions where it wants to guide 
Russia’s troops. Each drone can carry several caltrops because the spiky metal objectsare small 
and consist of little more than four metal spikes gathered around a central mass. They’re also ideal 
for deploying in regions where Ukraine isn’t able to place mines or when it is confronting an enemy 
against which anti-tank mines are ineffective, as is the case when dealing with motorbikes. Those 
bikes and their riders often aren’t heavy enough to trigger anti-tank mines, allowing Russian 
troops to break through minefields Ukraine had hoped would protect their locations. The fact that 
caltrops are also difficult to detect from the air is also a massive plus point. Russia’s drones 
can be used to scope out minefields and other Ukrainian defenses. But even the high-definition 
real-time footage delivered by the best first-person view and reconnaissance drones has 
a hard time finding tiny pieces of spiky metal lying on the ground. So, the 63rd Mechanized 
Brigade spread caltrops all around the kill zones it created around Torske. Unable to spot the 
caltrops from the skies, Russia’s motorbike squads are essentially blind. They don’t know they’re 
heading into a Ukrainian trap until the first bike runs over a caltrop. A weapon that once punctured 
horse hooves is just as effective at puncturing motorcycle tires. The tires go pop, flinging the 
Russian rider from their vehicle. In some cases, the riders are killed outright. But even those who 
don’t die or get seriously injured by their falls aren’t out of the woods…literally or figuratively. 
Once Russia’s forces figure out that caltrops are lining the routes they want to take into Torske, 
they have to look for alternatives. That’s all part of the 63rd Mechanized Brigade’s plan. Those 
alternative routes are always in exposed areas, where Russia can’t rely on tree cover to 
protect its forces from Ukraine’s weapons. You can guess what comes next. As soon as the 
Russian soldiers enter these exposed areas in a desperate attempt to escape the caltrops, 
they’re bombarded with drones, artillery fire, and small arms fire. It’s a brilliant strategy. 
And it has made Putin’s already depleted forces attempting to push into Lyman ever more desperate. 
Euromaidan Press reports that many of the soldiers in the Lyman region are now wearing thermal 
cloaks. Those cloaks won’t prevent them from running over caltrops on their motorbikes. 
Instead, the cloaks are supposed to hide the body heat that a soldier generates. That’s useful at 
night, when Ukraine’s drones have to use thermal imaging cameras to locate their targets. You 
could even argue that this is an intelligent approach by Russia’s forces, were it not for one 
thing: Their thermal cloaks are garbage. “Their poor implementation renders them ineffective, 
making Russian soldiers even more visible to Ukrainian drones equipped with standard or thermal 
imaging,” Euromaidan Press reports. “Consequently, geolocated drone footage frequently shows Russian 
units easily identified and swiftly eliminated, despite their attempts at concealment.” With 
those cloaks failing them, Russia’s soldiers in the Lyman and Torske regions are increasingly 
faced with only two options: Death or surrender. More and more of them are turning to the latter 
option, Euromaidan Press says. So overwhelmed are they by Ukraine’s brilliant combination 
of an ancient Roman tactic and modern drone and artillery warfare that those soldiers are 
surrendering in large numbers. And it’s easy to see why. Putin hopes that his strategy of sending 
soldiers in on motorbikes accompanied by on-foot infantry would be enough to take Lyman. The troops 
on the ground can see how tactically inferior they are when compared to Ukraine’s brilliant defense, 
which is why they’re now surrendering rather than becoming part of the 66-to-one statistic we 
mentioned earlier in the video. As Euromaidan Press puts it, “Many Russian personnel clearly 
understand they will never survive long enough to leverage their numerical superiority and 
engage directly with Ukrainian positions.” The 63rd Mechanized Brigade’s clever use of caltrops 
is the reason why Lyman has stayed in Ukraine’s hands for almost three years. But here’s the most 
surprising thing. That brigade wasn’t the first to come up with using this ancient Roman weapon 
on the battlefield. Others have done it before, allowing the 63rd Mechanized Brigade to refine 
the strategy to the point of near-perfection we’re now seeing in the defense of Lyman. The 
reality is that Ukraine has been using caltrops almost since the very month that Putin’s forces 
first invaded. We know that thanks to a March 2022 report published by The Week, which profiled 
a Ukrainian company named Art of Steel. Based in Western Ukraine, the company had previously 
made its money from building metal chainmail, armor, and helmets that were used in military 
reenactments and similar shows. When Russia invaded, Art of Steel pivoted to become one of the 
first Ukrainian companies to start manufacturing caltrops. An official from the company said, 
“Ukrainians are united in this war. Absolutely everyone is trying to help in the fighting places 
and in the rear. Therefore, any materials are somehow used.” The official added that proper use 
could allow Ukraine to use caltrops to stop entire columns of vehicles or “at least delay them 
for a while.” Within weeks of Putin launching his invasion, Ukraine was deploying caltrops in 
Rivne. And it started using them even more as the war dragged into 2024. In April 2024, Forbes 
senior contributor David Hambling wrote that Ukraine had started using caltrops to stop Russian 
trucks in their tracks. Those trucks, which carry ammunition, food, and other supplies, were already 
being targeted by Ukraine’s drones, forcing them to make mad dashes through danger zones to get to 
safety. Ukraine saw the recklessness inherent in these dashes and realized that caltrops could 
become an effective tool. How? The same way the 63rd Mechanized Brigade is using them 
against Russia’s motorcycles – the ancient Roman weapon could pop truck tires, leaving the 
vehicles vulnerable to Ukraine’s drones. Ukraine started using caltrops so effectively that it even 
prompted Russian military bloggers to complain about them. Hambling reported on one of these 
bloggers, who posted to Telegram saying, “The enemy keeps coming up with new nasty things. Not 
only do they drop mines from the drones, but they literally cover dangerous sections of frontline 
roads with spikes. For safety reasons, we have to literally ‘fly through’ these areas and our 
vehicles… drive at the maximum possible speed. And imagine what happens to a car when two (or more) 
wheels are immediately punctured by its spikes.” We don’t have to imagine. We already know, thanks 
to what has been happening to Russia’s motorbike troops in Torske. Tires go pop. The vehicle grinds 
to a halt. Or, if a truck is moving fast enough, the popped tire causes the entire vehicle to flip, 
potentially inflicting casualties while making the vehicle easy prey for Ukraine’s drones. And, just 
as we see in Torske and Lyman, Ukraine was using drones to drop its caltrops back in 2024, just as 
it is today. The 63rd Mechanized Brigade’s use of caltrops is just an extension of what Ukraine has 
been doing throughout the Ukraine war. In 2022, it was using makeshift caltrops to slow 
down Russia’s mechanized units. By 2024, it was using them to take out the tires of trucks 
delivering supplies to Putin’s increasingly exhausted soldiers. And now, caltrops have proven 
themselves to be the perfect counter to Russian soldiers’ attempts to escape drones and avoid 
mines while riding motorbikes. Ukraine’s use of an ancient Roman tactic is having devastating effects 
on Russia. But perhaps even more surprisingly, caltrops don’t represent the only strategy Ukraine 
has pulled from ancient times. In September 2022, the University of California, or UC, Davis 
reported on a strange spectacle Ukraine put on in Kyiv to celebrate the country’s Independence 
Day. Where in the past the streets would have been lined with people partying, the 2022 edition of 
this massive day was instead marked by government officials lining the main street of Khreshchatyk 
(Khresh‑chah‑teek) with the burned-out husks of Russian tanks and vehicles. A display that seemed 
macabre on the surface may have actually been serving another purpose, UC David suggested. It 
says this mockery of Putin’s initial invasion failure may have been a modern-day example 
of an ancient practice called trophy display. Writing for UC David, Anya Free says that the 
ancient Greeks used to mount captured armor, weapons, and similar memorabilia onto trees to 
commemorate important victories. At the time, these monuments were erected to pay homage to the 
Greek gods, with the practice continuing into the Roman era. The practice continued into the modern 
era, evolving continuously as it did. By the time Ukraine adopted the ancient ritual, it was using 
the concept of trophy display to garner support from its allies. Free points out that Ukraine 
started sending captured Russian weapons to former Soviet bloc countries, such as Poland 
and the Czech Republic, so they could be put on display in museums. These trophies were meant 
to send a message: Ukraine can take out Russian equipment and soldiers, and you can too. That 
message not only bolsters morale inside Ukraine by demonstrating the weaknesses of the invading 
forces, but it also reinforces the countries upon which Ukraine is relying for support. The idea is 
almost like a transaction. A country like Poland receives one of Ukraine’s trophies, making it 
more likely to support Ukraine in its endeavor to take out more Russians by providing weapons 
and military aid. Just as with its caltrops, Ukraine went back in time and placed a modern 
twist on an ancient tactic to hurt Russia. Therein lies an interesting irony that will upset 
Putin more than anything else. Like Ukraine, Russia has also looked backward in its effort to 
defeat its enemy. But where Ukraine has come up with novel twists on ancient tactics that actually 
get results against Russia, Putin’s version of looking back has been forced upon him. Russia’s 
leader has had to pull old Russian tanks, some of which date back to the World War II era, out 
of storage. Ukraine’s Roman caltrops have proven themselves effective time and time again. As for 
Russia’s old military equipment…not so much. Putin will also be livid about what Ukraine’s 63rd 
Mechanized Brigade’s use of caltrops means for his summer offensive. We’ve already mentioned 
that Russia has dedicated 110,000 troops to this offensive in Donetsk, most of whom are focused on 
Pokrovsk. What we haven’t mentioned is that this summer offensive is destined to fall far short 
of Putin’s expectations. In Sumy (Soo-Me), where Putin has dedicated 50,000 troops to create 
a buffer zone, the offensive has stalled out, reported The Kyiv Independent on July 13. As for 
Donetsk, any inroads Russia is making are marginal at best and are coming at great cost. By July 
9, Russia had already lost 31,000 soldiers in the offensive, and they’re yet to take their 
main target of Pokrovsk. Russia’s failure to deal with Ukraine’s caltrops in Torske is 
just a microcosm of the much wider failure of the country’s summer offensive. Putin should 
be humiliated. His troops are being overcome by a tactic that has existed for thousands of 
years, and there appears to be nothing that Russia can do about it. And this is far from the 
only humiliation Putin is having to deal with. As Ukraine’s clever use of caltrops embarrasses 
Russia’s forces inside Ukraine, Putin is being left with egg on his face at home thanks to a new 
Ukrainian strategy that is making life impossible for all Russians. Find out more in our video and 
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