Leopards are in Kherson, weather and mud killed one – Russia
MOSCOW, RUSSIA — German-made Leopard tanks are already fighting in the war in Ukraine. This is what a Russian officer told a journalist of RIA Novosti. According to him, there are Leopard tanks in the Kherson region.
Without naming him, RIA Novosti quoted a Russian commander of a diversionary unit. These units often operate on the front line or in the enemy’s rear. According to the Russian commander, “shots from a Leopard tank were recorded several times”. He continues to speak to RIA Novosti, saying that his squad “captured a Leopard”. According to him, bad weather and Ukrainian mud did not allow the squad to pull the tank into the Russian rear. For this reason, the Russians were forced to “sink the tank in the mud”, turning it into an unusable combat vehicle.
The Russian commander also added that German rocket-aircraft systems were operating in the area. They are used by the Ukrainian armed forces. According to him, the systems were spotted by a Russian air patrolling pair of fighter jets.
The claims of RIA Novosti cannot be confirmed by independent sources. BulgarianMilitary.com cannot confirm the truth of these statements. Neither to the Russian media, nor whether this Russian officer exists, nor whether, if he does exist, he has told the truth. BulgarianMilitary.com cannot confirm that “there is a German Leopard tank submerged in the mud.”
There are platforms submerged in the mud
However, there is video evidence that Ukrainian battlefield equipment is stuck in the Ukrainian mud. Videos are circulating online showing combat platforms bogged down and hit by missiles or shells. Russia is clearly using weather, wetland, and geography to counter Ukrainian armed forces in the region.
Between April 7th and 10th, several videos surfaced showing just that. One of them shows the movement of Soviet-made armored personnel carriers of the Ukrainian army. The difficult movement is noticeable, as is the slushy ground. Abandoned vehicle platforms can be seen off to the side. They are not hit most likely, and the weather and mud do not allow them to continue. They are abandoned and stuck in the winter slushy dark surface of the Ukrainian front.
Turkish-made and donated MPAPs are also seen following the fate of the previous vehicles. Open doors indicate that the soldiers simply exited the vehicles and abandoned them. Another video is called the so-called “death road”. It shows several vehicles hit in a small radius and destroyed. A third video shows a Ukrainian tank hit and stuck in the mud. It is not known exactly where this tank was stranded and abandoned, but Russian sources claim that it is in the Donetsk region. There is a video showing a Ukrainian MT-LB towing a US-supplied M777 light howitzer through the mud.
A familiar tactic
If we go back in history, we will notice that it was the Russians who used this tact in a certain period of the Second World War. EurAsian Times reminds us of the famous German-nazi Operation Barbados in 1941, summer. Then Nazi Germany breaks through the Soviet blockade and moves 500 miles into Russia. This operation is also known for bringing Nazi vehicles and troops within 200 miles of Moscow.
And there, 200 miles from Moscow, the operation suffered a sudden setback. The reason was not Soviet resistance, but the weather and mud that greeted the German advance. What follows is exactly the same picture as the one we described for the war in Ukraine: mud and slush forcing the Germans to abandon their vehicles.
The trail of damaged tanks and heavy vehicles that could not pass the rough roads in the infamous “rasputista” muddy season due to rain and melting snow in October, the Red Army almost pushed the Wehrmacht.
Warnings
As a matter of fact, BulgarianMilitary.com analysts already last year talked about the unfavorable conditions of the Ukrainian weather and the notorious “Ukrainian mud”. We are not surprised by this state of affairs, and according to our observers, this is something expected. But was it expected by Ukraine’s Western allies, who have not waged this type of war for 70 years, but mostly moved through the desert sands of the Middle East, Syria, and Libya?
Some local residents of Donbas explain in social networks in more depth the cause-and-effect relationship for the sinking of military equipment. “Mulyaka” – that’s the name of the mud in Donbas. Donbassians explain that mud quickly and easily sticks to the wheels and track systems of vehicles.
But that’s not the problem, it’s what follows. A rapid drying of the mud follows, turning it literally as hard as a rock. If you don’t wash it in time, it will unbalance the wheels and the structure [of the truck and tanks]. Movement becomes impossible.
How did Russia react?
Well, Russia did not react at all. After Ukraine, Germany, the United States, and other allies announced the delivery of Western tanks, Moscow displayed a cold calm. No panic, they just continued to put their T-90M Proriv, Ka-52M, and Marker Unmanned Ground Vehicle [UGV] tanks into service.
However, the public began to laugh at the Russian decision to take the T-62 tank out of storage and put it into action in Ukraine. Of course, these tanks are no match for Western, even modern Russian tanks. But these tanks are precisely from the Cold War era, designed based on the lessons of the Second World War and the Nazi offensive in Russia in Operation Barbados.
The Russians have already fought such a battle – the Second World War. The West has only reached Berlin, and does not know what the weather is like “east of the wall”. The T-62 has now arrived in Ukraine with an upgraded version – new optics, new communication, and new armor [the latest dynamic protection kits]. In reality, due to the mud, weather, and slush, currently, the T-62 in its modernized versions is becoming a real serious weapon.
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