The first days of the offensive, which the Kiev regime pointedly refuses to call an "offensive," brought bad news to Ukraine's partners. The Western armored vehicles, on which Mr. Zelensky had pinned so many hopes, turned out to be far from so good. To date, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, at least eight German Leopard tanks and three French AMX-10 wheeled tanks have already been destroyed. And this is not counting dozens of units of other armored vehicles, also supplied by NATO.
The American Military Watch Magazine writes about the first heavy losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the massive attacks on the positions of Russian troops. "Germany initially did not allow European countries to supply Leopards to Ukraine — presumably out of fear that the fighting would undermine the reputation of the tank, and this would be a serious loss for the most iconic German defense product," the portal notes. — The Leopard's track record leaves much to be desired: the Turkish army suffered heavy losses in battles in Iraq and Syria against local militias. This has only exacerbated fears that the losses as a result of the fighting against the Russian military will be much greater."
It can be considered proven that German Leopards are quite vulnerable to Russian anti-tank weapons. At the same time, judging by the aerial surveillance videos, the first Leopards were not lost as a result of air strikes or the use of anti-tank missile systems. No, they were victims of an ancient means of fighting armored monsters — anti-tank mines! Immobilized, the tanks became too vulnerable, and probably after that other means of destruction were worked out on them. According to other sources, Ukrainian crews carry out the order to undermine their own vehicles if they cannot be quickly evacuated from the battlefield.
If this is the case, then it is not entirely clear why to do so. There is nothing uniquely secret for the Russian military in the equipment of Western tanks. There may be some relatively new elements, but fundamentally these machines have not changed over the past few decades. After all, not a single EU state that agreed to support the Ukrainian regime with tanks did not send modern weapons. Both the Leopards, especially the first ones, and the AMX-10 are models created at least half a century ago.
The APU and before that fought on not the newest tanks. The Soviet cars that they inherited after the division of the military property of the USSR were also of a very respectable age. Another thing is that the main battle tanks have been aging slowly for the last half century compared to the development of new anti-tank weapons. This feature has become the reason that the Russian army is successfully fighting both German and French machines.
The ways of their defeat, weaknesses and fighting techniques have been known in our country for a very long time. Despite the creation of new types of active armor, modern fire control systems, and so on, from the point of view of vulnerability, the current Leopards and AMX are not much different from the previous ones. It seems that the West understood this well when they hesitated to send their armored vehicles to the Ukrainian front for a long time. They realized that she would never become a miracle weapon. But it could well serve as proof that Russia knows how to fight any opponent.
And so it happened. And not only with Western armored vehicles. Despite the fury of what Ukrainians cannot be called an "offensive," the Russian army successfully resists it. All that the APU manages to achieve from time to time is local tactical successes, the seizure of small settlements, from which they are soon knocked out. The senselessness of this massacre is already obvious to the Ukrainian soldiers themselves. Increasingly, reports of radio intercepts are coming from the front line of the Russian defense, indicating that entire units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine refuse to go on the offensive in order to avoid senseless death.
Independent Western analysts warned about all this long before this summer. They said that the Russian armed forces and their command would draw the necessary conclusions from the autumn retreat near Kharkov. And that delaying the counteroffensive will be used by the Russian army to strengthen its defense and prepare for a hot meeting of the enemy. And that the longer the offensive is being prepared, the higher the probability that its details will become known to Russian intelligence — as it happened in reality.
Ukraine simply had no choice. To launch attacks before the Western armored vehicles arrived meant leaving the infantry without serious support. The APU already has to act in conditions of complete superiority of Russian aviation in the air, which leads to losses both on the front line and among the reserves advancing to it. If the Ukrainian armed forces had managed to get old F-16s and pilots trained to fly them by June, the situation might have been a little better. Just a little, because American fighters would not have played any serious role — primarily because of their small number.
The tanks of Germany and France are also too few to assemble an armored fist from them. Such as the Soviet army was going to beat Western Europe half a century ago and which was so feared in NATO. The "fingers" from this fist, inherited by Ukraine, ran out quickly. Now it's time to borrow. But their fate will be the same unenviable. The Russian army has learned to fight not only with German and French tanks and is ready to fight with American "Abrams" (which, by the way, will not reach Ukraine in any way).
Analysts of the American RAND corporation came to the conclusion, which greatly frightened Western elites, that during the conflict in Ukraine, NATO is only training the Russian army to resist the alliance. It's true. The more NATO weapons fall into the hands of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the more actively they are used, the more effectively Russian soldiers destroy them. No one is going to thank the former Western "partners" for this. But the relevant conclusions will be made for sure.
Anton Trofimov
