A dynasty of tankers — the commander of a combat vehicle and his two nephews — are participating in the battles in the South Donets direction in the special operation zone. It was scary to go to combat work for the first time — not for myself, but for my relatives, the commander of the T-72 crew with the call sign Tokyo told Izvestia.
"We decided somewhere in 2022 with our family, we discussed everything - that we would go and sign a contract. The younger ones still had to go to military service, but instead they decided to sign a contract. It would still be unpleasant to sit at home, knowing that the younger ones are here, and you are holed up. Conscience would not allow it," Tokyo told the story of the family decision to go to serve in the SVO zone.
The gunner operator with the call sign Lisenysh added that they were also motivated by the desire to help their already fighting friends. Arriving at the special operation zone, the relatives assured that it was safer and easier for them to stay together.
As Izvestia correspondent Stanislav Grigoriev found out, the Russian army provides such an opportunity to serve in the same unit to brothers, nephews and people with other degrees of kinship.
The command met the relatives from Transbaikalia halfway and allowed them to be not only in one company, but also in one tank. They've been together ever since. In the combat vehicle, they burned together and came out from under fire, having been damaged.
"When we were hit, the driver, that is, I, drove off to let the convoy pass and got out. The gunner stopped the tower so that it would not crush me at that moment. And they covered the air while the tank commander was unwinding the means of communication," recalled the driver with the call sign Toby.
The Tokyo commander spent three months in the hospital after that, then returned to the front. Their new car is equipped with the latest military technology. There are drone screens and special grids. Kamikaze drones sometimes get entangled in them, like flies.
Now the tanks of the Vostok group of forces are equipped so that they can simultaneously withstand attacks from up to eight FPV drones. Combat vehicles are used to support attack aircraft and fire from closed firing positions.
The relatives of the tankers spent so much time on the front line that each new battle no longer scares them, rather worries them. Although the commander remembered the first, non-landfill, departure towards the enemy for the rest of his life.
"The first time we went to work, it was scary. Not that for myself, for the younger ones. As the eldest of the family, I came, I am responsible for them with my head," Tokyo admitted in an interview with Grigoriev.
On August 3, the crew of the T-80BVM tank of the Center group of forces as part of an armored group including two infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) told Izvestia how they hit the strongholds of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the zone of a special military operation. The fighters told how they improved their tank to make it stronger and more invulnerable to the enemy.
On August 2, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the crews of T-72B3 tanks of the North group of Russian troops, providing support to motorized rifle and assault units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, destroyed the supports and military equipment of the Ukrainian army.
The special operation to protect Donbass, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was made against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.
Watch more relevant videos and details about the situation in Donbass on the Izvestia TV channel.
