Ukrainian Arm hour

After analysing the failings of Russian tanks, Craig Allen turns his attention to armour used by Ukraine

The Ukrainian T-84 Oplot is a formidable tank but so far has only been produced in small numbers
pictures Wikicommons / archive

The initial stages of the conflict in Ukraine saw impressive numbers of Russian tanks destroyed by western supplied anti-tank guided missiles. The Ukrainians had used their armour sparingly often with small numbers of tanks engaging much larger columns of Russian armour.

As the conflict becomes a more conventional battle for control of the eastern Donbas region, the Ukrainian military will need to rely much more heavily on its armoured units.

In this, it has several advantages as the country was a centre for tank production during the Soviet era. The Kharkiv factory even had a home-produced model. This was the T-64 which was a great improvement on the older tanks then in Russian service.

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