Russian armor losses on the cross-Dnipro front are so vast - and the risk to existing weapons systems so severe - that the best use Russian commanders to can think of to assign one of their operable tank battalions is to try to retrieve damaged equipment. JL
David Axe reports in Forbes:
There’s no point in retrieving a tank that’s missing its turret. But there are dozens of damaged trucks, BRDM scout cars, BTR armored personnel carriers and self-propelled howitzers rusting between Krynky and the T2206 road that might be worth retrieving - at least 163 tanks, fighting vehicles, howitzers, rocket-launchers and trucks. Now the 17th Regiment is responsible for retrieving the scores of vehicles the Russians have lost while trying, and failing, to dislodge the marines from Krynky. That a whole tank battalion with dozens of T-90 tanks is dedicated to the recovery task speaks to the intensity of Russian lossesIn mid-2023 the Kremlin organized a new field army around the 70th Mechanized Division by combining three mechanized regiments—the 24th, 26th and 28th—with an artillery brigade and the 17th Tank Regiment.
A couple of months later in September, the new 18th Combined Arms Army deployed to the front line on the left bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast.
It was just in time to meet the Ukrainian 35th Marine Brigade as it motored across the Dnipro and secured a bridgehead in Krynky on the Russian-controlled left bank.
Now the 17th Regiment is responsible for retrieving the scores of vehicles the Russians have lost while trying, and failing, to dislodge the marines from Krynky.
“The 17th Tank Regiment of the 70th Motorized Rifle Division has been trying for two weeks to evacuate damaged and inoperable armored vehicles from the active combat zone in the Krynky area,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies noted, adding that the regiment is focusing its efforts north of the T2206 road, which threads east to west two miles south of Krynky.
“This evacuation effort involves both regular repair and evacuation units and the 2nd Tank Battalion of the regiment,” CDS explained. While dedicated armored recovery vehicles with their cranes and winches might be the best means of towing disabled vehicles, in a pinch a tank can tow, too—and a tank can defend itself.
That a whole tank battalion with potentially tens of T-90 tanks apparently is dedicated to the recovery task speaks to the intensity of Russian losses around Krynky.
In three months of failed counterattacks through Ukrainian drone and artillery kill-zones, and across mines that the drones drop at night, the 18th CAA and other formations in Kherson have lost at least 163 tanks, fighting vehicles, howitzers, rocket-launchers and trucks. Ukrainian forces have lost just 33 vehicles, mostly on the Dnipro’s right bank.
Not all of the losses are total write-offs ... if the Russians can recover the hulks and get them to repair facilities. The thoroughness with which Ukrainian brigades recover their own damaged vehicles explains why, for instance, almost all of Ukraine’s 21 German-made Leopard 2A6s have taken damage—but perhaps half of them still are in action.
Granted, the Russian engineers’ job is more difficult. Western-style tanks such as the Leopard 2 tend to keep much of their ammo in blow-out compartments. When a Leopard 2 takes a hit, triggering a secondary explosion, that explosion vents outward—and away from the turret.
Russian tanks, by contrast, tend to keep their ammo in automated loading carousels underneath their turrets. Hit a T-72 or T-80 and trigger a secondary explosion, and the tank just might launch its turret hundreds of feet into the air. No tank comes back from a turret-toss.
There’s no point in retrieving a tank that’s missing its turret. But there are dozens of damaged trucks, BRDM scout cars, BTR armored personnel carriers and self-propelled howitzers rusting away between Krynky and the T2206 road that might be worth retrieving.
If the 17th Tank Regiment can fetch some of those vehicle, it might somewhat soften the blow as the battle for Krynky grinds on, and Russian losses accumulate.
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