Interesting, that’s a far better record than I’d expect. Although in that list it doesn’t sound like all 21 tanks were “destroyed” when there was damage described as
and
Also, several seemed to have been intentionally destroyed after having got stuck in the mud and abandoned.
Still, evidence that a damaged or destroyed tank shouldn’t necessarily be a death sentence for a crew.
It’s amazing what can happen when a country’s military doctrine isn’t centred around the idea that its soldiers are only warm bodies meant to be thrown at the enemy in waves of cannon fodder.
That’s apparently how we view schoolchildren.
Some of those tanks listed as destroyed were returned to service. I was in 37AR in Germany in the nineties and one of the vehicles we had was a repair. The only visible scars were a gouge in the front slope right in front of the driver’s hatch which had been filled in with welds, and a crater above the coax tube. At the time the bumper number was B-65
The tank was part of the Gulf War 1 operation. It suffered a mechanical failure (if i recall correctly) and was left behind (with the crew) in a depression until it could be towed. After a short while a group of three Iraqi T-72s came up over the berm and began to engage.
The first tank took a shot which missed. B-65 turned the gun and destroyed it. The second tank took a shot which skipped off the turret armor. B-65 knocked that tank out too. The third tank then started to back up out of the bowl. When it had reached a hull-defilade position B-65 fired through the berm and crippled it.
A while later the recovery crew arrived with an M88 to tow the tank but it couldnt be budged, so a decision was made to destroy it in place and a tank was called up to take it out. The first shot hit the turret at the coax tube and made a huge dent. The second round was aimed for the turret race ring. The round hit just in front of the driver’s hatch, entered the drivers hole, then skipped up into the turret ammo hold. However the M1 has overpressure blast doors on top so the ammo explosion was directed upwards limiting damage to the turret.
A while later a second M88 was in the area, and with the two M88s B-65 was eventually pulled back to the repair area. After repairs the tank was restored to service.
‘Serious and imminent’ risk of genocide in Ukraine – report
There is enough evidence to conclude that Russia is inciting genocide in Ukraine and committing atrocities intended to destroy the Ukrainian people, according to the first independent report into allegations of genocide committed by Russian troops in Ukraine.
More than 30 leading legal scholars and genocide experts have signed the report accusing the Russian state of violating several articles of the United Nations Genocide Convention, CNN reports.
The report warns there is a serious and imminent risk of genocide in Ukraine, accompanied by a long list of evidence including examples of mass killings of civilians, forced deportations and dehumanising anti-Ukrainian rhetoric used by top Russian officials.
It directly accuses Russian top officials of orchestrating incitement to genocide and laying the groundwork for future genocide by repeatedly denying the existence of a Ukrainian identity.
As examples, the report points to the dehumanising language used by Russian officials to describe Ukrainians, including words such as “bestial”, “subordinate” and “filth”, or Vladimir Putin’s statements that he believes Ukraine has no right to exist as an independent state.
A Ukrainian woman with tied up hands takes part in a silent protest against the mass killing of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian army in Krakow, Poland. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images
Azeem Ibrahim, a director at the US-based thinktank New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, which put together the report, said:
What we have seen so far is that this war is genocidal in its nature, in terms of the language being used and the manner in which it is being executed. That’s very, very clear.
The experts also accused Russian forces of carrying out a “pattern of consistent and pervasive atrocities against Ukrainian civilians collectively” in the course of the invasion.
It said that well-documented massacres and summary executions in Bucha, Staryi Bykiv, and in Sumy and Chernihiv regions, Russia’s deliberate attacks on shelters, evacuation routes and healthcare facilities, as well the indiscriminate targeting and bombardment of residential areas, rapes, sieges, grain thefts and forced deportations to Russia all amount to “genocidal pattern of destruction”.
The report calls on the international community to act, warning that there is “no time at all”. Ibrahim said:
Every country that is a signatory to the Genocide convention, and that’s 151 countries including the Russian Federation, every country has to do whatever it can to put a stop to this, otherwise they will also be in breach of the convention.
Not looking good for the Ukrainian forces in and around Severodonetsk
Watch the short interview at the end
One thing that movies always show incorrectly is the speed at which AT weapons truly move. An AT-4 fires a rocket at about 150 meters per second bt movies will show a rocket lazily moving across the scene .
Did the rocket launcher jam?
I think he got flustered in the moment
I wonder if that would screw up their insurance coverage?
What a timely question
The New York Times reports that Russia has resorted to crowdsourcing food, clothes and even military supplies for its troops from its own citizens.
“No one expected there to be such a war,” Tatyana Plotnikova , a business owner in the city of Novokuybyshevsk , told the Times in a phone interview.
“I think no one was ready for this”.
The article suggests Russia’s $66bn (£52.2bn) defence budget was woefully inadequate for such a large scale undertaking as the invasion of Ukraine.
A grass-roots network of citizens is donating roubles to pay for, among other items, drones, crutches and potatoes to be sent to the front line.
Read the New York Times article here.
And in other crowdfunding news…
Quick update to an earlier post, in which we reported that hundreds of Lithuanians were raising funds to buy an advanced military drone for Ukraine .
The Lithuanian internet broadcaster Laisves TV , which launched the telethon-style fundraising drive several days ago to show solidarity for another country once under the rule of Moscow, says the 5m euros (£4.25m, $5.4m) target was reached this afternoon.
Here’s some video from the fundraiser (portions in English), with the total passing 5m euros just before the 59-minute mark:
Is this supposed to be comforting?
