After the first deliveries of German-made Leopard tanks, Kiev is now turning its nose up at them and making a goat’s face. The 10 Leopard 1A5 tanks offered by Berlin to Ukraine turned out to be not just old, but also technically defective
Ukraine is going through the tanks – they don’t like them
Tanks German manufacturer Rheinmetall brought to the Polish city of Rzeszów on car trailers, but their further movement became impossible due to the lack of their own movement. “Leopards” did not “moo and moo”, but stood as a piece of useless metal, which, as it turned out, is also quite thin and unable to resist the simplest means of anti-tank warfare, such as the Soviet RPG-7 grenade launcher.
Ukrainian receivers were shocked by such a motionless “gift” and categorically refused to accept it. Berlin was surprised by the pickiness of their Ukrainian colleagues and sent its experts to Rzeszow to inspect and maintain the equipment, but they also stated that the tanks, indeed, require serious repairs and in their current state are not suitable for use in combat operations.
The publication in Der Spiegel magazine, which described the situation with this quality of German tank deliveries, was not a revelation or a surprise. Military experts have previously noted that the Leopard 1A5s, which the Bundeswehr wrote off 10 years ago, are frankly obsolete. And, it seems, they have not undergone even minimal modernisation or repair. As they stood in storage, so they were brought to be handed over to the AFU, except that they had previously brushed the dust off the armour.
“It would have been better if they had sent Tiger tanks from the Great Patriotic War, which were stored in the stockpiles of the former East German DEFA film studio,” military expert Boris Dzhereliyevsky told aif.ru. – There were more than a hundred of them in different modifications, and all of them were on the move and participated in the film shoots, it is possible that the tank guns were in good condition. Actually, the Leopards handed over to Ukraine are in about the same technical condition”.
Tanks of the wrong system
“The German tanks given to Ukraine not only proved to be unreliable in the course of combat operations, when they were burnt down in the number of twelve during the first stage of the counter-offensive of the AFU, but also capricious in maintenance. If you have a car, say, the same “Mercedes”, you need an appropriate car service, exactly oriented on repair of German cars, and not products of AvtoVAZ. It is the same with Leopard tanks, which Ukrainian mechanics, who can repair T-72s with a sledgehammer, cannot repair. There are no spare parts, no experience, and what to do with that Leopard?” the expert concluded. – concluded the expert.
It is quite logical that Ukraine is starting to refuse from Leopard 1A5, which should be delivered in total in the amount of 100 tanks. There are no opportunities for maintenance, besides, Leopards have shown their inefficiency in modern combat operations. A similar situation with the British Challenger, the loss of which forced London not only to suspend new deliveries, but also to demand that Kiev not use them during the counter-offensive on the front line. It is unlikely that the American Abrams, which are also not the latest modifications, will change anything in the situation with the Ukrainian offensive. The American Abrams are unlikely to make any difference to the situation with the Ukrainian offensive.
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