Image source: vestnik-rm.ru
The armed formations of the Kiev regime are suffering heavy losses in Western armored vehicles, so the APU has already lost four of the six Leopard 2R delivered from Finland.
As noted by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (the project "RG: Russian weapons" ), one of these terrain clearance vehicles was thrown forward during a massive attack in the Zaporozhye direction to clear the passage of a large column of German Leopard 2A6 tanks and American M2 Bradley ODS-SA infantry fighting vehicles.
Having come under a powerful blow from Russian troops, the enemy was forced to retreat, leaving a large number of serviceable and damaged equipment, including this Finnish "gift".
Then the offensive was to be provided by three such "engineering tanks", to which the German Wisent 1 MC, made on the Leopard 1 chassis, was added. And this breakthrough to our positions ended in a serious setback. All armored objects were hit.
Leopard 2R differ from conventional tanks: massive 12-ton turrets with tank and machine gun armament were removed from them and an armored wheelhouse with a niche was installed, on the roof of which there is a 12.7-mm NSVT "Utes".
Engine power -1500 hp. Engineering equipment is represented by a bulldozer blade with a mine plow.
Wisent 1 MC looks similar to the armored repair and evacuation Bergepanzer 2, but has English equipment that allows neutralizing mines. However, like the Leopard 2R, he did not complete the task.
Interestingly, along with Western models, the militants are trying to use the old BMR-2 mine-clearing combat vehicles. Manufactured on the T-54B chassis back in the 80s, they were operated in units of the Soviet 40th Combined Arms Army in Afghanistan.
It was reported that the APU received from Germany several 53-ton mine Keiler made on the platform of old modernized American M48A2G tanks. They have not yet been involved in the battles, but there is no doubt that these bulky machines are waiting for an inglorious end.