Both Soviet and Western samples can be seen at the collection point
As our troops move forward, more and more different types of Western armored vehicles become trophies. Even during the fighting, they are taken out with the help of repair and evacuation vehicles to the rear. Izvestia visited the collection point of captured armored vehicles of the evacuation unit of the 1st Slavic Brigade of the 51st Guards Donetsk Army, learned what the enemy is fighting in the Donetsk direction, how German infantry fighting vehicles are destroyed and how they are delivered from the battlefield to the rear.
How to evacuate captured Marder infantry fighting vehicles
There are a large number of trophies on the site in front of us — from Soviet samples to Western ones, of different years of production. Western technology is concentrated separately, it will not be used as a source of parts or for its intended purpose. Some samples are sent to exhibitions in Russian cities, and the most interesting ones fall into the hands of designers for study.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Today, there are three German Marder infantry fighting vehicles and the same number of American Maxx Pro MRAP class armored vehicles (armored with enhanced mine protection). The former are relics of the Cold War, while the latter, on the contrary, are the product of local wars of the XXI century. Everything is completely burned out from the inside and cannot be restored. But white crosses are clearly visible on some of the surfaces from the outside. On one of the German infantry fighting vehicles, next to the cross, the inscription Rheinmetall is still visible — the brand of the arms manufacturer, which remained unchanged both world wars and has survived to the present day.
— I hit him with an FPV drone. It was happening between Umansky and Yasnobrodovka, he was moving in our direction. We noticed him and started driving the drone through the forest belt, where he got stuck in the spring mud. The crew left the immobilized car. And we added it so that the enemies could not evacuate," says the UAV operator Mikhalych from the 1st Slavic Brigade.
Mikhalych is from the LPR, joined the army a little over a year ago as a volunteer and became a drone operator. Although in civilian life he was a butcher and had no combat experience.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
— There is also a Marder, also shot down by our 1st Slavyanskaya. The drone was also hit, and the grenade launcher finished off with a direct shot. It was during the Ukrainian attack. And the first Marder that we took out was not damaged, but fell into a funnel from an air bomb. He is now in Moscow, standing on Poklonnaya Gora," Mikhalych continues his tour of German cars. — My grandfather also fought against the Nazi Germans. We need to beat them and expel them from our land.
The German Marder infantry fighting vehicles were discontinued in 1975, but after that they were modernized. First of all, in the direction of increasing armor protection, so that it can withstand a projectile from the main Russian automatic 30 mm cannon, which is mounted on light armored vehicles. The Bundeswehr used these vehicles in its foreign operations in anti—partisan operations, although their main task is to work with tanks in combined arms combat.
MRAP class cars
Nearby are American MRAPs, whose history is in some ways a mirror image of Marder. They were developed in the late noughties as infantry transport for Iraq and Afghanistan, where mines and small arms fire were the main danger. They were created without regard to the dimensions of the car, but taking into account the price and ease of maintenance, based on the International production truck. Such machines have become common in the US army and in many regions of the world, so they have massively entered the Ukrainian army.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
— The American armored car was evacuated from the Pokrovsky direction with the help of BRAM, an evacuation vehicle based on a tank. I personally customized BRAM. Not sparing her stomach, as they say, she had to pull out to study her weaknesses and strengths in more detail. We left at night and in the morning. Kamikazes flew after us, artillery worked on us, but they hooked us with cables and pulled slowly," says an Italian, a fighter of the evacuation department of the 1st Slavyanskaya remrota. Judging by the appearance of the car, it was hit by a kamikaze drone in the engine, and before that it lost a wheel when hitting a mine. But the armored capsule for the landing looks intact, although it received many hits. The car burned out from the inside, apparently after getting into the engine.
Today, MRAP class cars are in demand at the front from both our side and the enemy. They turned out to be convenient for transportation in the frontline due to the peculiarities of their booking. Being designed for action in conditions of guerrilla ambushes, vehicles of this class are equally armored from all directions, and not only in frontal projection like classic armored vehicles. This feature turned out to be important in the context of the mass use of artillery and drones.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
— He was shot down by our brigade, our guys. It is not intended for our soils, our terrain. Their base is short and narrow, so it is very unstable," explains the Student, commander of the evacuation department of the 1st Slavic Brigade, showing another destroyed Maxx Pro. He says that when hitting mines, the troops and crew often leave the cars — they protect those inside, but they cannot continue driving without one or two wheels. Therefore, they must be evacuated or finished off before the enemy can pull them out.
A student in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation since 2014, and in 2023 expressed a desire to serve in the 1st Slavyanskaya, one of the most famous formations of Donbass, which by that time had already fully integrated into the Russian army.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
— I like the attitude of the commanders here. Everything is different here. We are like one big family, the team is very good, well-coordinated. We do everything together," the Student shares his impressions.
Dmitry Astrakhan
