In the 20 months of Russiaā€™s wider war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has captured around 200 of Russiaā€™s T-72B3 tanks.

The T-72B3, a product of Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, is one of Russiaā€™s newer tanks. And unlike, say, the T-64BV, the T-80U or the T-72AMT, Ukrainian industry doesnā€™t have much experience with the type.

So when a Ukrainian tanker with the callsign ā€œKochevnikā€ ran into problems with his captured Russian T-72B3ā€”problems local expertise couldnā€™t immediately solveā€”he called Uralvagonzavod tech support. And incredibly, the help line actually helped.

Militarnyi captured Kochevnikā€™s calls on video.

Kochevnik serves in the Ukrainian armyā€™s 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 Ukraineā€™s 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 werenā€™t 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 Uralvagonzavodā€™s factories.

A Russian who gave his name as Aleksander Anatolevich, who clearly was unaware that Kochevnik is a Ukrainian soldier, promised heā€™d bring up the problems with the design bureau in Nizhny Tagilā€”and that heā€™d also contact the engine-manufacturer in Chelyabinsk.

Kochevnik wasnā€™t done trolling. He also got ahold of Andrey Abakumov, a Uralvagonzavod director. Abakumov asked Kochevnik to describe the tankā€™s problems in detail on WhatsApp.

Thatā€™s when Kochevnik finally revealed heā€™s Ukrainian, and his army had captured the problematic T-72 around Izium late last year.

Laughing, Kochevnik ended the call.

  • seang96@spgrn.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    Ā·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • extant@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      Ā·
      1 year ago

      I doubt itā€™s a governmental policy and just individuals using what they know without understanding how it works.

      • seang96@spgrn.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        Ā·
        1 year ago

        Yeah Iā€™m sure it is, but that is quite a bad practice and with all of their other failings, I bet itā€™s not uncommon.

  • qyron@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    Ā·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    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.