Ukraine’s struggles on minefields have exposed vulnerabilities of the personnel carriers and tanks — especially the newly arrived American Bradley fighting vehicles and German Leopard tanks — that officials had hailed as being key for Ukraine to seize back occupied territory from the Russians. The vehicles have won praise from soldiers — even after they’ve hit mines, most people inside survive with just minor injuries — but they have not been able to breach Russia’s defenses alone.
U.S. officials said that they have provided Ukraine with nearly every type of equipment it requested ahead of the counteroffensive. Officials cautioned that it is not always possible to provide the quantities Ukraine asks for, but said that with the MICLIC systems specifically, Washington is working to soon provide more of not only the system, but also the charges it uses to detonate a long row of mines.
A commander — The Post is identifying him by his call sign, Oskar, in accordance with Ukrainian military protocol — with an engineering and sapper unit in Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade said his group received a German-provided Wisent mine-clearance tank that it used ahead of the counteroffensive’s start in the Zaporizhzhia region. The tank and similar Soviet models successfully cleared some pathways for the brigade’s units to make their first push.
“When the enemy sees even a Leopard tank in front of him and special engineering equipment, he will destroy the special equipment first,” he said. “Because without it, all the others will not pass. And in just a couple of days of the offensive, several such vehicles were destroyed along with their crews.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: fox13 - 🏆 550. / 51 Read more »
Source: FieldGulls - 🏆 66. / 68 Read more »
Source: nypost - 🏆 91. / 67 Read more »
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »
Source: KSLcom - 🏆 549. / 51 Read more »
Source: ABC7 - 🏆 67. / 68 Read more »