As of: March 18, 2024, 10:28 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
Comments
Press
Split
The Ukrainian army is losing tank after tank as Vladimir Putin's Russian troops advance.
The example of a Challenger 2 tank is alarming.
Donbass - Little by little they are left behind on the battlefield of Ukraine: Western tanks that the treacherously invaded country received for its defensive battle against Russia.
Weapons for Ukraine: Challenger 2 main battle tanks have major weak points
The inventory of British Challenger 2 main battle tanks is also suffering seriously in the Ukraine war.
According to various media reports, as of mid-March, only seven of the steel giants are still operational.
To put it into perspective: London delivered 14 of the heavy battle tanks to Kiev last year.
However, these have ultimately proven to be too heavy in recent months due to adverse weather.
A video by the English journalist Jerome Starkey from the British daily newspaper
The Sun
, which went viral on
But in the spring of 2024 they will have little influence on the extensive front line on which the Russians have been advancing in various places for weeks.
Tanks for Ukraine: Challenger 2 sinks into the mud of the battlefield
The video comes from an exercise by the Ukrainian armed forces behind the front, where Starkey was allowed to ride along.
But: The tank crew drove their Challenger 2 into the middle of a deep mud pit on the training area.
When the tank couldn't make any further progress, the tank driver literally buried the vehicle in the ditch, which became deeper and deeper under the weight of the Challenger 2 and then filled with water.
Nothing worked anymore.
Significant: According to the Ukrainian portal
Defense Express
, which is close to the Kiev army, two Challengers were lost due to enemy action by mid-March.
Five other tanks apparently cannot be repaired or maintained due to a lack of spare parts.
The Challenger 2 in its basic version, weighing 62.5 tons, is significantly heavier than the German Leopard 2A4, which the Ukrainians got from Poland or Canada, for example.
A German Marder infantry fighting vehicle, on the other hand, weighs “only” 42.5 tons, and an American Bradley “only” 32.7 tons.
My news
A four-year-old has a tumor in his head – parents ask for help reading
Up to 30 centimeters: Where it's supposed to snow a lot on the weekend read
“Stunned after all the rumors”: Princess Kate surprises with public appearance
Habeck wants to have gas networks shut down: What that means for consumers read
Deaf to noise: Three US nerds declare war on Putin with a cheap drone read
No longer available: Aldi is taking the entire product category off its shelves
Ukrainian losses: Challenger 2 and Abrams main battle tanks are lost
The tank's shortcomings, which the Ukrainian crew criticized in the video, are significant, according to Starkey.
“We see the main problem that the Challenger tanks face here in Ukraine – they are stuck in the mud with their mobility,” the
Sun
reporter explained.
According to the Ukrainian soldiers, the tank is simply “too heavy, under-revving, and it gets stuck.”
The tank “simply sank,” Starkey said of the failed maneuver.
On the battlefield, the Challenger would have been an easy target for the Russian Lancet kamikaze drones.
Alarming: There are also significant losses among other Western tanks.
On February 26th, Russian military bloggers at X showed a video of a burning US M1 Abrams tank.
The United States had supplied Kiev with 31 examples of the older main battle tanks, which entered service in the mid-1980s.
In early March, the Ukrainian army apparently lost another M1A1 after a mine explosion.
Weapons deliveries for the Ukrainian army: Kiev also loses HIMARS system
But that's not all: Recently, Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin's invasion troops are said to have destroyed for the first time a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), one of the effective multiple rocket launchers of which the Ukrainians received a total of 39 examples from the USA.
In recent days, both Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers have also shared a video on social networks of how the Ukrainian armed forces lost three parked military helicopters at once in a Russian air strike.
The Ukrainians continue to be under heavy pressure.
(pm)