In the 20 months of Russiaās wider war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has captured around 200 of Russiaās T-72B3 tanks.
The T-72B3, a product of Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, is one of Russiaās newer tanks. And unlike, say, the T-64BV, the T-80U or the T-72AMT, Ukrainian industry doesnāt have much experience with the type.
So when a Ukrainian tanker with the callsign āKochevnikā ran into problems with his captured Russian T-72B3āproblems local expertise couldnāt immediately solveāhe called Uralvagonzavod tech support. And incredibly, the help line actually helped.
Militarnyi captured Kochevnikās calls on video.
Kochevnik serves in the Ukrainian armyās 54th Mechanized Brigade, which fights around Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine and operates mostly Soviet-vintage equipment including T-64 tanks and BMP fighting vehicles. It also owns some of Ukraineās ex-Russian T-72B3s.
Kochevnik was trolling the Russians, mostly. But his gripes with his 45-ton, three-person tank were real. The tank had been spewing oil. Its compressors werenāt working. The electrical turret-rotation mechanism kept failing, forcing the crew to rotate the turret with a hand crank.
While any tank can be temperamental, the list of malfunctions Kochevnik was dealing with might speak to inconsistent workmanship at Uralvagonzavodās factories.
A Russian who gave his name as Aleksander Anatolevich, who clearly was unaware that Kochevnik is a Ukrainian soldier, promised heād bring up the problems with the design bureau in Nizhny Tagilāand that heād also contact the engine-manufacturer in Chelyabinsk.
Kochevnik wasnāt done trolling. He also got ahold of Andrey Abakumov, a Uralvagonzavod director. Abakumov asked Kochevnik to describe the tankās problems in detail on WhatsApp.
Thatās when Kochevnik finally revealed heās Ukrainian, and his army had captured the problematic T-72 around Izium late last year.
Laughing, Kochevnik ended the call.
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Since the director asked to discuss more in WhatsApp, does Russian military personnel seriously use WhatsApp for communication regarding military equipment? Trusting meta providing end to end encryption feels like a bold choice for a government.
I doubt itās a governmental policy and just individuals using what they know without understanding how it works.
Yeah Iām sure it is, but that is quite a bad practice and with all of their other failings, I bet itās not uncommon.
What a mad lad š
Mad lad indeed
I need one of those always overconcerned with logic and coherence in movie plots people to read this and please explain where those can be found in this situation.