German leopards have completely disappeared from the battlefields of Ukraine.

Leopard 2 tanks have completely disappeared from the battlefield in Ukraine, after more than two years of this type of tank participating in the war. So what is the reason?

It is too early to talk about a full-scale withdrawal of the Ukrainian army (AFU) front; but their defenses are collapsing in some areas, with irreparable losses. The retreating Ukrainian soldiers are forced to abandon their armored vehicles, including Western-made ones.

Currently on the Pokrovsk front, the Ukrainian army has lost up to three armored brigades due to the retreat. This information was provided by retired colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and a military expert, Mr. Oleg Starikov.

The AFU deployed 12 elite brigades to defend Pokrovsk, each with between 2,000 and 4,400 troops and equipped with around 30 tanks, including NATO and Soviet-made tanks, but more or less modernized by Ukraine, such as T-64s, T-72s and T-80s; plus around 120 wheeled armored personnel carriers and tracked infantry fighting vehicles. In total, there were around 360 tanks and nearly 1,500 armored vehicles.

Obviously, these statistics are only on paper; in reality, the number is only half that. Some of the AFU's mechanized infantry and tank brigades have been converted into regular infantry brigades, and their troops are transported by trucks or light armored vehicles.

AFU armored vehicles have long become “rare,” Russian military expert Vladislav Shurygin writes on Svpressa.ru. “The Russian Armed Forces (RFAF) destroyed a large number of AFU tanks and armored vehicles, and they were also left on the battlefield by the Ukrainian army, sometimes in a completely intact condition.

Due to orders from the AFU General Staff and the Kiev leadership, which assigned the AFU units the task of holding the front “to the last man”, the AFU units were unable to evacuate their armored vehicles when the Russian army attacked," the quote ends.

According to information from war correspondents, Russian technical repair units are currently dismantling dozens of tanks captured from the Ukrainian army (both Soviet and Western-made), some of which are being restored, others are being scrapped, or for spare parts.

For example, in the 155th Anna Nevskaya Brigade of the AFU, the brigade was “sponsored” by the French army; after completing training in France, it was deployed to the Pokrovsk front. And one of the companies of the tank battalion, which was listed as having ten Leopard 2A6 tanks. But in reality, there was only one.

Another company in the 155th Brigade was also listed as possessing ten German tanks, although the list said seven, in reality there were none. Such a brigade would not be able to fight on the front lines, because fundamentally, without tank support, whether offensive or defensive, such a unit would have difficulty breaking through.

“The Ukrainian army lost tanks for several reasons,” Russian military expert Boris Dzherelievsky told Svpressa.ru. “Firstly, they never learned how to use them properly, as training was limited to a minimum.”

Second, the AFU General Staff introduced Western tanks into the battlefield without fully understanding their tactical and technical characteristics, not realizing that these heavy armored vehicles would be easy targets, but they ignored them and continued to send them into battle.

Third, most Western tanks cannot operate without technical support from the manufacturer, with even minor problems forcing them to be pulled back, and no replacements being sent. As a result, today it is difficult to find a Leopard on the front line.”

However, the AFU still has a number of armored vehicles in the vicinity of northwestern Pokrovsk. But at the moment, as one Ukrainian expert noted, the command cannot withdraw the equipment from the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad direction.

The 144th and 155th brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, hastily transferred from the Sumy and Chernihiv regions, will not save the situation; at most they will delay the collapse of the Ukrainian grouping in this direction for several more weeks. (photo source Topwar, Ukrinform, Kyiv Post).

A series of armored vehicles abandoned by Ukrainian soldiers in Russia's Kursk province last March. ( Video source: 1TV).

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