Today is the 4th of May. Remembrance Day in the Netherlands. So it is perhaps fitting that on this day we talk about a tank that represents the war in Ukraine, a conflict that has been raging for over four years now. No longer headline news but still being fought. Lest we forget.
The T-72
The topic of today's Achtung Panzer is the Soviet/Russian T-72 Main Battle Tank (MTB). Introduced in 1973, it was a further development of the T-64 MTB. Around 25,000 units were produced. Our version is a T-72B which entered production in 1985. I understand that this tank was knocked out during the battle for Kyiv in March, 2022. It ran on a French-supplied mine and was disabled.
The tank, together with an Ukrainian ambulance, is a travelling exhibit now in the care of the Vrijheidsmuseum (freedom museum) in Groesbeek. Its first appearance outside of Ukraine was in Berlin, parked in front of the Russian Embassy as a protest against the war. It has since been seen in Amsterdam, Groesbeek and now Groenlo where I caught sight of it.
According to Oryx, the Russians lost 365 T-72B's during the war until May 2026. Confirmed losses, that is.
The turret and fuselage are marked MRVSP KN-TN-7455 in Cyrillic. Anyone for its meaning? Let me know in the comments.
As I was with you, I remember being most impressed by the damage the mine did, from the bottom up tearing the thick steel apart and thoroughly wrecking / dislodging half of the tank. I would absolutely not have loved sitting in it at that moment. All war is terrible and especially on days like today we are reminded that also we, the kaaskop-koopkracht-Dutch can be dragged into it.
ReplyDeleteVery well photographed btw, considering the difficult circumstances (fences, people), but we have come to expect nothing less from you :-D
My thoughts exactly Joeri! And thanks for the compliment!
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