In addition to BMP-1 from the Czech Republic , Ukraine may soon receive T-72 tanks from NATO countries that were once part of the Warsaw Pact - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria.
"US is expected to help facilitate the transfer of tanks from NATO allies to Ukraine, according to senior US officials. The tanks will be Soviet-era T-72 tanks, which Ukrainian military has experience operating and will be delivered “within days, not weeks”. This tweet was recently published by CNN correspondent Jim Schutto .
> p dir = "ltr" lang = "en"> Breaking: US is expected to help facilitate the transfer of tanks from NATO allies to Ukraine, according to senior US officials. The tanks will be Soviet-era T-72 tanks, which Ukrainian military has experience operating and will be delivered “within days, not weeks,” I’m told.
Breaking: US is expected to help facilitate transfer of tanks from NATO allies to Ukraine, according to senior US officials. The tanks will be Soviet-era T-72 tanks, which Ukrainian military has experience operating and will be delivered “within days, not weeks,” I’m told.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 2, 2022We are talking about the surplus of Soviet T-72 tanks, which are no longer in the service of NATO countries and are preserved. Most likely we are talking about the T-72A / M / M1, export modernizations of the T-72, which were produced in 1979-1982 and delivered to the Warsaw Pact countries. They are less perfect than modern Ukrainian T-72AMT, T-72AV, T-72B1 or Russian T-72B and T-72B3. But the Armed Forces of Ukraine need additional heavy equipment, despite the fact that the number of tanks in the army has even increased over the past month due to trophies. However, some equipment needs to be repaired and replaced.
It is expected that Ukraine may receive 130-160 tanks, most of which will come from Poland and the Czech Republic. Poland is just now starting to replace its T-72 with American M1A2 Abrams SEPv3.
Interestingly, Ukraine itself has quite large reserves of T-72 in storage. At the beginning of 2021, it was about 500 units. But their condition might be even worse than the condition of Polish models. In general, the T-72 is one of the most massive tanks of all time. In total, about 30,000 machines of various modifications were manufactured.
Specifications
Weight - 41-44.5 tons
Length - 9.53 m
Width - 3.46 m
Height - 2.19 m
Crew - 3 people
Main armamament - 125-mm 2A46, smoothbore gun L48 (39)
Secondary armament - 1 × 12.7 NSVT Utyos, 1 × 7.62-mm PK machine gun
Engine - B-46-6
Power - 780-840 hp
Ground clearance - 470 mm
Operating range - 500 km (700 km with external tanks)
Speed - on the road up to 60 km / h, off-road 35 km / h
