2024-04-17 11:21:05
The Ukrainians managed to steal one of the most modern Russian tanks. After an unsuccessful attack by the aggressor near the village of Terny in the northeastern part of the Donetsk region, an abandoned T-72B3M was left on a dirt road. The members of the Azov Brigade decided to go after him, the Kyiv Post website writes.
The Russians abandoned a top tank during the battle, the “hated” Azov took it away after the action. | Video: Aktuálně.cz/Youtube/Azov
A column of Russian armored personnel carriers attempted an attack on April 4. Footage from Ukraine’s 95th Air Assault Brigade shows around twenty tanks and infantry fighting vehicles came under artillery fire and were then attacked by swarms of drones and volleys of anti-tank missiles. One of the tanks tried to escape, but the three-man crew escaped after colliding with an infantry fighting vehicle, as shown in the video at the beginning of this article.
In this sector, the units of the 12th Azov Special Purpose Brigade, which is hated by the Russians and whose members are labeled by Kremlin propaganda as neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists, are also deployed. Azov soldiers decided to capture the tank from “no man’s land”.
On the night of April 5-6, Ukrainian sappers first cleared the road to the tank and the vehicle itself of IEDs. The next evening, the infantry secured the area for Ukrainian mechanics to repair the tank and took it away on the night of 7 April. During the three-day operation, the soldiers also had to transport a tank battery weighing 70 kilograms to the tank on foot.
Azov published on the YouTube channel an interview with the soldiers “Tenor” and “Bajdar”, who took care of the transportation through the night front landscape towards the Ukrainian positions. “The Russian tank was damaged by the explosion, but after repairs in the driver’s cabin and replacement of the batteries, it started without any problems,” Ukrainian tanker operator Bajdar said in an interview.
The Russians did not try to attack them, but a pair of ferrymen almost got stuck in a giant bomb crater in the village of Terny. According to Azov’s statement, the captured T-72B3M tank can be completely repaired and sent to fight against its former owners.
The T-72B3M is a main battle tank. The weapon system costs an estimated $2.5 million. Anti-tank missiles can be fired through the cannon, the tank has upgraded active armor, a Relikt defense system designed to destroy incoming missiles and drones, and a new diesel engine with almost twice the power of previous models. According to the manufacturer Uralvagonzavod, sensors and computers control the fire, and the T-72B3M reliably hits a moving target with the first shot at a distance of more than two kilometers.
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“We don’t have any ammunition left, I wish we could make it ourselves,” Ukrainian soldiers claim. | Video: Reuters