Russian Forces Neutralise and Secure Leopard 2A6 Tank in Kursk: Extreme Casualties Rising Rapidly
Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Ground
Footage released from near the border areas of the Russian Kursk region has confirmed the neutralisation of a Ukrainian Army Leopard 2A6 main battle tank, which was subsequently secured by Russian forces. The capture of the vehicle, which had been acquired by Ukraine in relatively few numbers due to its scarcity and high cost, comes amid signs of increasingly extreme losses in Kursk as a Ukrainian incursion force has been simultaneously assailed from several sides.
The Russian Defence Ministry on October 27 reported the following estimate regarding Ukrainian losses since the Ukrainian assault began on August 6: “The enemy lost a total of over 27,150 troops, 177 tanks, 97 infantry fighting vehicles, 106 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,014 armoured combat vehicles since the fighting started in the Kursk area.”
This was up from an estimated 20,650 personnel estimated in the first week of October to have been lost in Kursk.
With only very limited cover against Russian air attacks, and operating at the end of long supply lines leaving forces exhausted and under-equipped, Ukrainian and supporting Western forces in Kursk were from the outset widely predicted to take very heavy losses.
In parallel to the massive assault on Kursk, the Ukrainian Army in early August launched a failed simultaneous attack on Russia’s Belgorod Region, taking heavy losses in the process.
A report by the Washington Post at the time cited wounded Ukrainian personnel evacuated from the frontlines, noting that the assault involved a “fleet of armoured vehicles [moving] in broad daylight,” with one soldier describing the operation as “crazy.”
The failure of the assault on Belgorod allowed the Russian Armed Forces to concentrate more of their attacks on the hostile in Kursk. A large number of elite Ukrainian units were notably committed to the offensive, including those with some of Ukraine’s most advanced equipment such as T-80 and Leopard 2A6 tanks.
The Leopard 2A6 was among the first Western-supplied vehicles filmed being neutralised by Russian forces during mass Ukrainian offensives against Russian positions from early June 2023, when the class made its combat debut.
Leopard 2s have also been captured by Russian forces both for display in the country and for study, including both the Leopard 2A6, and the much less capable but far more widely available Leopard 2A4.
In early January it was revealed by German sources that only a fraction of Ukraine’s Leopard 2A6 tanks remained available for service, with the class having by then already taken widespread combat losses.
The large majority of Western tanks supplied to Ukraine have been classes widely considered obsolete such as the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2A4, with the much more capable Leopard 2A6 being reserved for elite units such as the 47th Mechanised Brigade alongside the U.S.-supplied M1A1 Abrams. The scarcity of Leopard 2A6 tanks makes combat losses particularly damaging for the Ukrainian war effort.
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