January 3, 2023 – “The enemy has been trying to advance for 5 days, but together with infantry, artillery, and tank forces we knocked out the enemy” – this is how the commander of the “Spartak” tank company describes the current situation in his area. For several weeks now, the 28th separate mechanized brigade, named after the Knights of the Winter Campaign, has been defending the eastern direction. From the first minutes of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, hromadske has been working 24/7, thoroughly checking every news item in the information space. We film in hotspots and translate our content into Russian, English, and German. We record the crimes of the Russian occupation army to protect Ukraine and show the world the truth.
January 15, 2023 – While tanks and fighters tend to win public attention, the fighting in Ukraine has done a lot to remind us of the critical role played by the infantry. And to survive and thrive on the battlefield, the infantry in Ukraine relies on their armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles to enable to enable movement and provide fire support. Those vehicles, so critical to both sides have, however, been lost in extreme numbers – with no vehicle on the Russian side having suffered more visually confirmed losses than the BMP-2. Now, it seems, the floodgates are opening on the supply of Western IFVs to Ukraine. In this video I look at these vehicles, their employment in Ukraine, and suggest that despite being lost in large numbers – that they will remain critical in the fighting to come.
January 19, 2023 – “They (the Russians) are very worried that Ukrainians might develop significant, modern tank forces.” Ukraine receiving Leopard 2s could allow them to take the war into Russia, says Michael Clarke, former director at RUSI.
January 21, 2023 – Defense leaders representing several Western countries met in Germany on Friday to discuss what additional weapons systems should be sent to Ukraine to help the country militarily defeat Russia. Yuriy Sak, the advisor to Ukraine’s Minister of Defense says, “Our allies, sooner or later, eventually provide us with what we request but it’s about being one step ahead, not being one step behind the enemy.” The one weapon Ukraine is desperately seeking, however– the German-made Leopard 2 battle tank– remained off the table in this week’s talks, as Germany continued to deliberate whether to greenlight the transfer of its sophisticated Leopard tanks.
January 25, 2023 – The leaders of the United States and Germany announced Wednesday that they will send tanks to Ukraine. Former CIA director and former commander of US Central Command, retired Army General David Petraeus, joins CNN’s Erin Burnett to discuss.
February 4, 2023 – Russia continues to pour older and older armor into the Ukrainian meat grinder. Is it running out of tanks? While Ukraine tries to crowd-source more tanks from the West, Russia has had to delve deeper into its surplus stocks from Soviet times. The country once touting its next-generation T-14 Armata is now sending T-62s into battle. It’s not a good look for Putin and his Russian military, once considered the second best in the world. What’s happening to Russian armor in Ukraine? Let’s find out.
March 14, 2023 – “There was more ammo for us in the Kherson direction, but the enemy had more artillery. Russians did not throw so many people at us. The Russians are throwing in a lot of infantry here, God forbid. Every day, on every sortie — you shoot at the same spot because the enemy infantry occupies the same positions every day. They don’t spare their infantry,” says the tank commander with the call sign “Chikatilo”. The 59th Brigade is currently defending the Donetsk direction. See how Ukrainian tanks cover and support infantry in hromadske’s report.
April 22. 2023 – The Insane Engineering of the M1 Abrams.
April 25, 2023 – With 31 M1 Abrams main battle tanks now headed for Ukraine, there’s been a great deal of discussion about how these armored behemoths will fare against the Russian tanks they were originally designed to square off against. Fortunately, this won’t be the first time American Abrams will find themselves sighting in on dated Soviet-era armor, and few interactions better reflect this power mismatch than the legendary Battle of 73 Easting of the Persian Gulf War. The Battle of 73 Easting is often referred to as one of the great tank battles of the 20th century, with just nine M1A1 Abrams tanks, 13 M3A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and 120 American soldiers squaring off against a much larger force of well-trained Iraqi Republican Guard Tawakalna and 10th Armored Divisions.
To make matters worse for the numerically inferior American forces, the Iraqi troops and armor were embedded in a defensive posture, just waiting for the chance to sink their teeth into the as-yet unproven American tanks. When the fighting began, however, a combination of sound military strategy employed by a then-28-year-old H.R. McMaster and superior military technology laid waste to the Iraqi forces, proving unequivocally that the one-two punch of M1 Abrams main battle tanks and M3A2 Bradley fighting vehicles were more than just effective in the fight. They were downright devastating.
May 8, 2023 – In the little more than a year since Putin began his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and it hasn’t quite gone as planned. Russian troops failed to take the capital Kyiv, facing extraordinary resistance from Ukrainians. From the beginning of the war until now, one striking observation stands out: the Russian armed forces, who were expected to be a formidable power, have suffered significant losses in terms of manpower and equipment, and nowhere are these devastating losses more obvious than Russia’s supply of tanks. As of early April, experts estimate that Russian tank losses exceed 2,000 vehicles in 14 months, while Ukrainian officials put the figure even higher. How on earth does someone like Putin allow such a situation to unfold, and is there a chance Russia could bounce back from these immense losses? Let’s find out.
May 30, 2023 – Ukraine is soon to receive 110 Leopard 1 (likely the variant 1A5). A German combat engineer fighting with the Legion in Ukraine explains why he thinks that the Leopard 1 is preferable over the Leopard 2 due to various reasons that are often missed. Additionally, we also look at some basic features of the Leopard 1.
September 6, 2023 – The destruction of a Challenger 2 tank in Ukraine, and the survival of its servicemen sheds light on its ‘elite’ capabilities compared to the Russian T72 tank, says Hamish de Bretton Gordon, a former commander of the royal tank regiment.
September 12, 2023 – This footage released by the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shows Leopard tank operators from the 47th Mechanized Brigade describing their experiences using the tanks. Various tank operators and crew discuss how much they prefer using the more advanced Leopard tanks over older Soviet style tanks that are smaller, slower and not fitted with night vision equipment. The 47th Mechanized Brigade was first involved with the counter offensive in Robotyne using the Leopard tanks to help troops advance and recapture territory.