Half of the six Leopard 2R breaching vehicles donated to Kiev have been disabled, images have indicated
FILE PHOTO: A Leopard 2R mine breaching vehicle. © Facebook / Finnish Ministry of Defense
The Ukrainian army has lost half of the specialized Leopard 2 mine-clearing tanks that were provided by Finland, the country’s media outlets have reported, citing frontline images.
The loss was mentioned on Monday by the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (HS), which said its military fact checker, John Helin, had confirmed the authenticity of photos of the damaged armor circulating online.
The so-called Leopard 2R Heavy Mine Breaching Vehicle is meant for creating paths through minefields for advancing forces. The Finnish firm Patria had converted ten regular Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks into the mine-breaching variant. Helsinki this year sent the six that remained operational to Ukraine. Finland’s Defense Ministry said that the vehicles were difficult to operate on its soil, particularly in the winter.
A Leopard 2R has no turret and is equipped with a distinctive British-made frontal mine plow. Three vehicles with those features were photographed on the frontline, after reportedly getting hit last Thursday during an attempted offensive near the village of Malaya Tokmachka in Zaporozhye Region.
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Forbes suggested that the possible imminent “extinction” of Leopard 2Rs was not a big deal, since Kiev has other vehicles meant for the same role in its fleet. Other specialized vehicles, which appeared to share the Finnish armor’s fate, were identified by the outlet as the Soviet IMR-2 and the German Bergepanzer.
Last week, Ukraine launched its long-touted counteroffensive against Russia, attempting to use Western-supplied tanks and other military hardware to pierce through Russian defensive lines. Moscow reported repelling a number of Ukrainian attacks and said Kiev paid a heavy price for them without scoring any major victories.
Russia perceives the conflict as part of a US-led proxy war against it. Moscow has repeatedly warned the West against supplying Kiev with weapons, saying it will only increase the cost of the conflict but will not alter its outcome.
