We’re tired of fighting Putin with our rubbish kit, says tank sergeant

‘The trouble with our equipment,’ he says, ‘is everything looks OK from the outside. But when you go into battle it just stops.’

One Ukrainian tank crew has a captured Russian T-72 but their brothers-in-arms have to make do with older, vastly inferior models. Picture: Richard Spencer

The breakdown in Bakhmut was not staged, but the 24th Mechanised Brigade could hardly have put on a better show of its men’s demands for better kit.

A battered-looking Soviet-era T-62 stood parked against the wall of a block of flats behind the front lines in Bakhmut, the Ukraine war’s most heavily contested town. Behind was its back-up, a BMP-2 armoured fighting vehicle, also of Soviet vintage. The only problem was that the BMP wouldn’t start. “We are so tired of working with stuff like this,” its driver, Sergeant “Spider” Bogdan, said. “Would we like to have a Challenger instead? It would be a gift from the heavens.”

He got in, and another BMP drove up behind his vehicle’s rear and bumped it forward until it burped into life, shooting out dark smoke. It was not a smooth start to Spider’s day. He turned to his commanding officer.

“Why is it always us, in the frontline, with this rubbish?” he said.

“The trouble with our equipment is that everything looks OK from the outside. But when you go into battle it just stops.”

Sergeant Bogdan, 34, has spent a year facing off against Russian tanks in the fields and forests of eastern Ukraine, and in between patching things up. The T-62, which did not look “OK”, but torn and bruised from months of brutal service, is a model that saw action in Afghanistan 40 years ago.

The British government has said it will send 14 Challenger 2 tanks, a much heavier and better-armoured vehicle than anything in Russian or Ukrainian hands, to help Kyiv’s war effort. That decision has been warmly welcomed by Ukrainian forces, but no one expects a single tank squadron to turn the war.

What the Ukrainians want is the hundreds of tanks, possibly the German Leopard 2 and the American Abrams, which are available to be sent quickly from western Europe and the US. The Leopard 2 is regarded by some as the best tank in operation and, more importantly, there are 2000 in the hands of 13 friendly European nations, offering an opportunity to invigorate Ukrainian forces. But there are tight rules in place for weapons re-exports, which need the agreement of the original supplier. Ukraine and its allies such as Poland, which wants to send some of its stock of Leopards, and the UK, are demanding German Chancellor Olaf Scholz say “yes”.

The soldiers of the 17th Tank Brigade are equipped with the Soviet-era T-64 and T-72 tanks – including an upgraded T-72 captured last year. These are the workhorses of both sides’ armies.

The more modern tanks would make a difference, according to Lieutenant Oleksander Romanchuk, 31, a commander of a tank company and a 10-year veteran. “Everything is built from the perspective and ease of the crew,” he said. “There’s more armour, better scopes, better ammunition.”

In its assault on Bakhmut and neighbouring Soledar, Russia has used mass-wave tactics, pouring recruits over the top, oblivious to the cost in lives. With a huge reserve of armour, and 300,000 conscripts called up in the autumn, it has the luxury of using the same tactics again. Ukrainian strategists and their Western advisers believe Kyiv in turn needs more, better-quality heavy weaponry to resist a mass onslaught in the spring.

Mr Scholz has implied he will agree to sending Leopards – perhaps even some of Germany’s own, as well as those of its customers – if the US also sends its Abrams. The decision is likely to reverberate on the battlefields of Bakhmut. “Let’s face it, we’re tired,” Lieutenant Romanchuk said. “We just want more ammunition, more equipment, more anything, so we can get on with things, and go home.”

The Times