Ukraine says tanks and equipment abandoned by Russian troops during counteroffensives conducted by Kyiv have more than doubled their firepower.
The press service of the National Guard of Ukraine said on Friday that ammunition, tanks and equipment left behind by Russian forces are helping Ukrainian troops to effectively carry out a counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region.
“The [fire]power [of the National Guard] has increased at least twice,” National Guard fighter Yurii Tarasov was quoted as saying. “Their [equipment] feasibility is great, because due to the rains, offensive actions can only be carried out if you have ‘goosenecks’ [caterpillar tracks on military vehicles],” he said.
An abandoned Russian tank in a recently retaken area near Kharkiv on September 30. Ukraine says tanks and equipment abandoned by Russian troops during counteroffensives conducted by Kyiv have more than doubled their firepower.
Tasarov said Russian troops have left behind modern equipment in good condition.
“The newest example is the T-80 tank, the BMP-3 is also in full working condition, [made in] 2021, even with the documentation—they left everything at our disposal,” he said. “It’s good that we have stupid neighbors who left the equipment in such condition.”
The National Guard said this abandoned Russian equipment was “honestly seized,” and that there is so much of it that a group had to be created to transport it from the liberated territories.
Last month, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) shared photos that showed examples of the huge arsenals of ammunition and equipment left behind by Russian troops as they retreated amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The images, published by the SBU’s press service on Telegram and Twitter, show an abandoned vehicle and what appears to be boxes of ammunition and equipment in an unsupervised storage space in Izyum, in Ukraine’s southern Kharkiv region.
“Russian invaders, under pressure from Ukrainian soldiers, are fleeing in such a way that they are leaving behind entire arsenals of ammunition,” the SBU said. “We know what to do with them and we will definitely use them for their intended purpose—against the enemy.”
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, also said on September 11 that Russian soldiers had fled so rapidly amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive in the region that they were leaving behind “half of their equipment.”
Gerashchenko shared a video on Twitter that he said shows an abandoned Russian tank in Izyum.
“Today our military accepted first lend lease supplies from Russia in Izyum (that’s a joke, of course. I will mark my jokes for some time now),” he wrote. “Russian soldiers fled so fast they left half of their equipment.”
Footage taken in Kharkiv by a U.S. volunteer, and shared with Newsweek last month, also showed Russian tanks abandoned in the region.
Ukrainian efforts are now concentrated in the southern Kherson region, which was seized by Russian forces in the early days of the war. Kyiv has taken back settlements along the western bank of the Dnieper River since early September.
Impact of Wet Weather
Ukraine’s defense minister has said wet weather and the terrain is complicating its southern offensive.
“First of all, the south of Ukraine is an agricultural region, and we have a lot of irrigation and water supply channels, and the Russians use them like trenches,” Oleksii Reznikov told a press briefing on Wednesday. “It’s more convenient for them.”
“The second reason is weather conditions. This is the rainy season, and it’s very difficult to use fighting carrier vehicles with wheels,” he added. “The counteroffensive campaign in the Kherson direction is more difficult than in the Kharkiv direction.”
