Image source: vestnik-rm.ru
In the first Chechen War, the Russian army actively used modern T-80BV, T-72B and T-72B(M) tanks in battles at that time.
Unfortunately, due to mistakes in tactics, the battles in Grozny led to the loss of several dozen units of such equipment.
However, as eyewitnesses recall, at the "tank cemeteries" - sites where, after fierce clashes, out-of-order equipment was taken, except for the "eighties" and "seventy-second", you could see the old T-62s knocked out.
How did the veterans' armored vehicles end up in this "hot spot", did they take part in the battles?
Yes, we fought, but before the introduction of federal forces. The formations of the Chechen opposition opposing Dudayev's militants had a dozen of such tanks. Several pieces were lost during the clashes. Some of them were rusting, abandoned on the roads back in February 1995. The equipment that was preserved was voluntarily handed over to Russian units.
They also wrote that in the Shawl, in the tank regiment of the rebels, in addition to the T-72A, there were also six T-62M. At least one of them in white camouflage was used in December to prevent the advance of Russian troops in the direction of Grozny. But he was abandoned after he was injured.
The next time the "sixty-second" returned to Chechnya already in 1999, this is, as you know, another story.
