As of: March 25, 2024, 3:31 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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Press
Split
The Ukrainian armed forces share a video on X of Russian soldiers pulling a Leopard 2 battle tank in vain.
Despite all the malice, one bitter realization remains.
Donbass - How many “Leos” are left in the Ukraine war?
Kiev remains silent about this, as well as about other losses in the fight with Russia that has been going on for over two years.
Putin's soldiers recently captured a Leopard 2 tank because the front had shifted.
Weapons for Ukraine: Video documents loss of a Leopard 2
A look back: The Ukrainian army received at least 65 Leopard 2 main battle tanks in the spring and summer of 2023 from Germany, Poland, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Portugal.
However, at the end of January 2024, the foreign policy journal
Foreign Affairs
wrote in an explosive report that “of the fewer than 100 Leopard 2s in Ukrainian service, at least 26 were put out of action.”
How
Foreign Affairs
arrives at the number 100 is unknown.
There may have been fewer tanks delivered.
However, it is very well known that the Ukrainian troops are losing more and more Western tanks, while the Russian invasion army of Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin continues to advance, particularly in the east of the country.
A video from the notorious Azov Brigade doesn't help either, which downright trivializes the recent loss of another "Leo".
Tanks for Ukraine: High losses among Western deliveries
Rather, the recordings document the task of the next Leopard 2 in Ukraine, while the Ukrainian soldiers are also having their work with British Challenger 2 tanks.
The image sequences show Russian soldiers trying to tow the “Leo” with the help of two old engineer tanks.
However, this endeavor ultimately fails.
What the Azov Brigade gloatingly acknowledged on its official X account (formerly Twitter) with the words: “They tried to steal a Ukrainian tank and lost two ARVs.
Two of the invaders' repair and evacuation vehicles attempted to remove a Ukrainian Leopard 2 from the battlefield near Terny." However, drone pilots from the 12th Azov Brigade ultimately "the enemy's plans" "with precise hits in the engine compartments." Engineer tank disrupted.
According to Azov, the incident took place near the settlement of Terny in Donbass.
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Leopard 2 tank from Germany: Weaknesses on the Ukrainian battlefield
What is kept secret: The Russian soldiers apparently had enough time beforehand to attach the 55 to 62 ton “Leo”, depending on the version, to their clearing vehicles and to pull it behind them for a considerable distance.
The truth is also: The initial euphoria surrounding the delivery of the “Leos” has long since faded.
An example: A Ukrainian soldier recently reported a life-threatening vulnerability in the Leopard 2 main battle tanks in combat.
There is a gap between the turret and the hull that urgently needs to be closed, explained a tank commander named “Arfa” in an interview with the
Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ)
.
Specifically: When the crew turns the turret and the 120 mm smoothbore gun backwards, a huge gap opens up between the turret and the hull.
There are no standard protections against anti-tank guided weapons and grenades like the old RPG-7 anti-tank rifle.
In the photos of the Leopard 2 shown in the
SZ
report, additional reactive armor that can disable projectiles using a counter-explosion was also missing.
Tanks for Kiev: Ukraine is eagerly awaiting Leopard 1 from Germany
As the US magazine
Foreign Affairs
writes critically in its analysis, the Leopard 2 performed well, but “they were hardly invulnerable superweapons”.
As military expert Gustav Gressel from the
European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
confirmed in an interview with
web.de
and
GMX.net
in mid-March, the main advantage of the “Leos” over eastern tank models should actually have been logistics.
The emphasis is on the subjunctive.
Example: The repair hub for the tanks is in Lithuania, far away from the front.
But that's not all: Actually, many more of the older Leopard 1s should have been delivered by now.
According to the traffic light federal government's list of military support services, as of March 19, only 30 copies had arrived in Ukraine.
The Federal Ministry of Defense actually wanted to provide around 80 units by the end of 2023.
The website says the delivery of 105 more copies is in preparation.
Since the beginning of December, nothing has happened in this context.
Or at least there was no communication while the Ukrainian armed forces under their new commander Olexander Syrskyj are currently having to cope with some serious defeats on the battlefield.
(pm)