There’s a road underpass on the eastern edge of Selydove, a town in eastern Ukraine just south of Pokrovsk—the latter, a key Ukrainian stronghold—that’s fast becoming the locus of the brutal fighting in the town.
On Wednesday, a pair of Russian armored vehicles dropped off their infantry at the underpass—and promptly got blasted by a Ukrainian T-64 tank firing from just a few yards away. A day later, the crew of a similar Ukrainian tank—or maybe even the same one—pulled off a daring heist at the same underpass.
The tankers discovered an abandoned Russian T-72 tank—and stole it.
This is not the first time Ukrainian forces have nabbed an intact but abandoned Russian T-72. In April, Ukrainian troops from the 12th Azov Brigade staged a three-day operation to swap out the batteries in an immobilized T-72 and drive it across the eastern no-man’s-land to the safety of Ukrainian lines around Terny.
What’s special about the Thursday heist is that it mostly occurred under armor. Selydove is an extremely dangerous place right now as the Russian 2nd Combined Arms Army closes in, aiming to flank Pokrovsk. So the Ukrainian tankers towed away the T-72 using their own T-64 as the tractor.
A drone from the Ukrainian national guard’s Kara-Dag Brigade was watching when, on Thursday, that T-72 rolled up to the underpass and sheltered amid the wreckage from Wednesday’s skirmish in the same location.
The up-armored, camouflaged Russian tank fired at least one 125-millimeter round at something to the north. And then, shockingly, the three crew bailed out of the 46-ton tank. At least one Ukrainian first-person-view drone targeted the fleeing Russian tankers.
It’s unclear why the Russians abandoned their undamaged T-72. It’s possible the vehicle suffered some kind of mechanical failure—perhaps an engine problem. In any event, the tank was a ripe prize for anyone brave enough to recover it.
Battlefield conditions favored an under-armor recovery. In the April heist, the sheer density of buried mines made the no-man’s-land extremely dangerous for armored vehicles from either side: it was safer, although hardly safe, to send soldiers on foot to fetch the abandoned T-72—albeit only at night.
But mines are apparently less of a threat in Selydove. The Kara-Dag Brigade’s 42-ton T-64s have been roaming the town with unusual freedom, even in broad daylight—perhaps compensating for an extreme shortage of infantry that has vexed the entire Ukrainian military in recent months.
The T-64’s three crew spotted the unoccupied Russian T-72 and rushed into action. The drone continued to observe as, under the cover of a smoke screen, the Ukrainians attached a towing cable to the T-72. A video montage released by the Kara-Dag Brigade ends with the T-64 dragging the T-72 away to the west—toward the main Ukrainian line.
Losing one tank won’t doom Russia’s 11-month offensive along the axis from Avdiivka to Pokrovsk. By the same token, the Ukrainians nabbing one tank won’t save Pokrovsk or surrounding towns from destruction and capture by a Russian field army that’s four times bigger than the local Ukrainian garrison.
But Thursday’s tank heist is still a win for Ukraine. Perhaps most importantly, it’s a morale-booster—a demonstration of the kind of courage and ingenuity the Ukrainians will need to eventually win the ongoing battle for Pokrovsk.
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