All modern technologies were stripped to prevent Kiev from learning US secrets, an adviser to the head of Russia’s DPR claims
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An M1 Abrams heavy tank which was supplied to Ukraine by the US and recently destroyed by the Russian military proved to be ineffective because it had been stripped of all sensitive technologies, Yan Gagin, an adviser to the head of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), has said.
Last week, shortly after the first Abrams was sighted on the battlefield in Donbass near the city of Avdeevka, which was recently liberated by Russian troops, videos of the tank in flames near the front line began to circulate on social media.
The destruction of the vehicle was later confirmed by the Defense Ministry in Moscow, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the West had been warned that its military equipment supplied to Kiev “will burn.”
In an interview with RIA Novosti on Saturday, Gagin claimed that there is nothing impressive about the Abrams, calling it “an empty tin can with a cannon.” According to the adviser, before the tank was handed over to Ukraine, “all innovations and secret technologies were removed from it so that Kiev would not get hold of them.”
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Any Western equipment that arrives in Ukraine either lacks many features that standard models have, or is accompanied by Western specialists, Gagin continued. He claimed that this is especially true for sophisticated Western-made long-range missile systems, which he said are operated by foreign military personnel. “This guarantees that Ukraine will not steal those technologies,” he added.
While the US announced the delivery of 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in January 2023, the shipment did not arrive until the autumn, and the vehicles were conspicuously absent from the front line until February. Some Western experts speculated that Kiev was saving them for a major offensive, or was reluctant to throw them at the strong Russian defenses in harsh weather and terrain conditions.
Washington initially planned to provide Kiev with the more modern M1 A2 version of the tank, but eventually opted to send the inferior A1s to speed up deliveries. In July, Politico described the tanks as “not new,” pointing out that the Abrams had been “stripped of their most sensitive technology, including in some cases secret depleted uranium armor.”
