Ukraine’s Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) rarely use Western-made tanks due to the high risk of their detection and destruction, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported.
“Dozens of advanced Western tanks began to be used (by Ukrainian troops – ed.) on the battlefield only rarely… some were damaged, destroyed or captured,” the WSJ publication said.
As an example, the newspaper cited the 47th mechanised brigade of the AFU, which hoped that by receiving US Abrams tanks it would be able to achieve a breakthrough. But in practice, the equipment supplied to them “stands idle in the field” many kilometres away from the front, as there is a high risk of losing them due to Russian artillery strikes.
U.S. General James Rainey, who heads the U.S. Armaments and Military Equipment Modernisation Command, admitted in a WSJ commentary that United States armoured units are in urgent need of modernisation.
“In the short term, we absolutely need to urgently make some adjustments to support the continued combat effectiveness of our armoured formations,” the newspaper quoted Rainey as saying.
Recall, earlier shares of the concern General Dynamics, engaged in the production and modernisation of OPV M1 Abrams, fell in price amid reports of the destruction of a number of machines in Ukraine.
