It is too early to talk about the complete collapse of the Ukrainian army, but it is continuously retreating in multiple battlefields, with irreversible casualties.

The "Leopard" Tank Has Completely Disappeared from the Battlefield: Ukrainian Forces Are Massively Discarding Western Equipment

Why cherish something you get for free, after all, it will be sent again once used up

It is still too early to talk about a complete collapse of the Ukrainian army on the front line, but the Ukrainian forces are continuously retreating in multiple combat areas, and the casualties are irreversible. Ukrainian soldiers have abandoned their fallen and wounded comrades on the battlefield, forcing them to abandon armored vehicles made in the West.

Oleg Starikov, a retired colonel of the Ukrainian Security Service and military expert, revealed that due to the retreat, the Ukrainian forces lost armor equipment equivalent to three battalions in the Red Army City (Ukrainian name: "Pokrovsk") area.

To defend Pokrovsk, the Kiev regime deployed 12 "elite" battalions, each with 2000 to 4400 troops, equipped with about 30 tanks (both NATO-standard tanks and modernized T-64, T-72, T-80 old-type tanks), as well as about 120 wheeled armored personnel carriers (BTR) and tracked infantry fighting vehicles (BMP). According to this calculation, the Ukrainian forces deployed approximately 360 tanks and nearly 1500 armored vehicles.

Evidently, such "paper data" are far from the actual situation — the actual number of equipment has been reduced by at least half. Some mechanized battalions and motorized infantry battalions have been simplified into pure infantry units, and soldiers can only move by truck or light armored vehicles.

Vladimir Shuragin, a military expert, said in an interview with "Svoboda" (SP): "The armored equipment of the Ukrainian army has long become a myth. Our soldiers have destroyed a large number of Ukrainian armored vehicles, in addition, the Ukrainian forces often abandon the equipment on the battlefield, sometimes these equipment still have combat capabilities. Due to the order from the Kiev authorities to 'hold the front line to the last moment', under the Russian offensive, the Ukrainian forces could not evacuate the armored equipment in time."

Even from the reports of battlefield journalists, it can be seen that our maintenance units are collecting batches of abandoned equipment from the Ukrainian forces — some equipment is repaired and put into use, while others are sent to recycling stations to be melted down into metal.

For example, the 155th Brigade (the famous "Anna Nefsky" Brigade) was sent to fight in Red Army City. One company of a tank battalion in this brigade should have had 10 "Leopard" 2A6 tanks on the roster, but only 1 remained; another company in the same brigade also showed 10 German tanks on the roster, listed as 7, but actually there were none. A unit like this going to the front is not to fight, but to head toward destruction.

In essence, whether on the offensive or defensive, units without tank support are almost useless on the front lines.

Boris Deryelyevsky, a military expert, analyzed in an interview with "Svoboda": "There are many reasons why the Ukrainian army has lost its tanks. First of all, the Ukrainian soldiers have never mastered the correct operation of the tanks, because the relevant training was compressed to the minimum.

Secondly, the Ukrainian command deployed the tanks into battle without understanding the performance and potential of Western tanks. They did not realize that these heavy armored vehicles would become easy targets when operating alone — but the Ukrainians don't care, after all, the West will keep sending new ones.

Thirdly, the key reason why a large number of foreign tanks cannot be used is the lack of technical support: even small malfunctions require the tanks to be sent to the rear for repair, but the subsequent supplies are delayed. As a result, there is no trace of "Leopard" tanks on the front lines today."

However, the Ukrainian forces still have some equipment remaining around Red Army City. But as Ukrainian experts pointed out, the current Ukrainian command can no longer evacuate the equipment from the Red Army City - Myrnohrad direction.

Even if the Ukrainian forces urgently dispatch the 144th and 155th brigades from Sumy and Chernihiv regions, they can only delay the collapse of the Ukrainian forces in this direction, lasting no more than two weeks.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7561478385441735202/

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