The army of the Russian Federation became the main supplier of heavy weapons - WSJ
They quickly erase the "Z" symbol and apply the White Cross of Victory, the newspaper The Wall Street Journal said, talking to the Ukrainian military. The rapid breakthrough of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region provided Kyiv with hundreds of units of armored vehicles, as the Russian army left heavy weapons and warehouses with ammunition during a chaotic escape, the authors of the material write. Some of the Russian equipment is ready for immediate use, some specimens will soon come to the front.
Strongly damaged tanks, machines and guns are disassembled for spare parts. Russia has left many Soviet artillery shells that almost ended in the Armed Forces. One Ukrainian Battalion "Carpathian Sich" captured 10 modern T-80 tanks and five 152 mm of self-propelled howitzers 2C5 "Hyacint" after Izium's release, says Ruslan Andriyko, Chief of Staff. "We have so many trophies that we do not even know what to do with them.
We started as an infantry battalion, and now we seem to become mechanized," he said. The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces in the Kharkiv direction said that in his unit there are 4 recently captured Russian self -propelled howitzers 2C19 "Bridge" of a caliber 152 mm and many Soviet ammunition. "The Russians lost their benefits in fire power.
We broke all their artillery units before moving on the offensive and began to move so quickly that they did not even have time to fill the tanks. They just fled and threw everything," the officer said. The successes of the Armed Forces have turned Moscow into a certainly largest supplier of heavy weapons for Ukraine, journalists said. Russia in this regard was significantly ahead of the US and other Western allies by the number of trophy equipment, according to analytical data.
The Ukrainian military captured 460 Russian combat tanks, 92 self -propelled howitzers, 448 infantry fighting vehicles, 195 armored vehicles and 44 volley fire jet systems according to Oryx exploration. "The Armed Forces are captured by both modern samples, suitable for use on the front, and that it is a time to take it to the museum," said Oryx Analytist Yanovsky. According to Oryx estimates, since February, Russia has seized 109 Ukrainian tanks, 15 SAUs and 63 BMPs.
In Izium, Ukraine received modern Russian armored vehicles-T-90 and BTR-82 tanks with automatic gun. The commander of the Ukrainian 92nd Brigade was seen on the T-90 tank, which was not in service with the Armed Forces before the war. The training of the military of the Armed Forces to work with various weapons systems in a short time helped them to master Russian weapons, said Colonel Sergei Cherevaty from the Ukrainian Operational Command "East".
"If we have mastered Panzerhaubitze, AHS Krab and American Paladins, to master Russian systems that look like ours, this is not a problem," he said. Expensive trophies - tanks and artillery are usually redistributed through the military management. But even in this case, they usually remain in the same area as it is fair, said the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Alexei Danilov.
The Carpathian Sich battalion passed the trophy waubs in other parts, but left the tanks for which he found the crew. The battalion commander said that the tanks are now assigned to the unit and are regularly provided with ammunition and fuel. "The trophies instill in us a sense of pride and raise the morale," said the commander who used a trophy Russian machine in a recent battle, during which his battalion liberated the village in Donetsk region.