A recent failed Russian assault, apparently in eastern Ukraine, left behind what one Ukrainian blogger described as a “cemetery” of wrecked armored vehicles. Most of the 14 or so wrecks are the usual types, including old T-62 tanks and MT-LB armored tractors. But a couple of curious new tracked vehicles are among the tanks and
Posts published by “David Axe”
One day after The New York Times broke the news that President Joe Biden had authorized Ukraine to fire American-made Army Tactical Missile Systems rockets at targets inside Russia, a Ukrainian army battery flung six of the 3,700-pound, precision-guided rockets at a sprawling Russian munitions depot in Bryansk Oblast, 60 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.
The four-month battle for Avdiivka probably is culminating as the Ukrainian garrison in the ruined city, just five miles northwest of Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, runs out of ammunition— a direct consequence of Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress withholding aid —and Russian infantry creep into the city from north and south, threatening the
In 2009, the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant in Arzamas, in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast 250 miles east of Moscow, revealed a new variant of the BTR-82 armored personnel carrier. The BTR-82A—a 17-ton, eight-wheel APC with a stabilized 7.62-millimeter machine gun and extra Kevlar armor—was meant for export. But in 2013, the Russian defense ministry ordered the vehicle
In the 20 months of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has captured around 200 of Russia’s T-72B3 tanks. The T-72B3, a product of Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, is one of Russia’s newer tanks. And unlike, say, the T-64BV, the T-80U or the T-72AMT, Ukrainian industry doesn’t have much experience with the type.
A video that appeared on social media on Friday depicts around 30 Leopard 2A4 tanks apparently belonging to a single Ukrainian battalion. The tanks are lined up in tidy rows in broad daylight, flying a variety of pendants including the Ukrainian flag. Their crews amble around the 61-ton, four-person tanks—unworried, unafraid. It’s obvious the tanks
Ukrainian army helicopters supported pro-Ukraine Russian paramilitaries during their two-day raid on a border checkpoint on the Russian side of the Russia-Ukraine border last week. A video the Russian Volunteer Corps posted yesterday depicts Mil Mi-8 helicopters in Ukrainian livery flying overhead as the corps’ fighters staged for their raid, which began on May 22
The battle for Bakhmut is grinding to a halt, it seems. And Ukrainian forces just barely are hanging on in the city, which anchors the front line in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Barring a dramatic reversal—a major commitment of fresh Russian forces or a sudden collapse in Ukrainian morale—the battle could end
U kraine’s tank corps wasn’t ready for the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. The Ukrainian army’s two tank brigades and 10 mechanized brigades , together equipped with around 400 ex-Soviet T-64 tanks, were no match for Russian brigades with their thousands of more modern T-72s and T-80s. But the Ukrainians learned fast. When
The Ukrainian navy for months has been hunting the Russian navy frigate Admiral Makarov . It seems the Ukrainians finally got a shot at the 409-foot, missile-armed vessel in her home port of Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea. The Ukrainian government on Saturday released dramatic videos apparently depicting a successful nighttime strike on Makarov or her…