Most of Germany's Leopard 2s were disabled by Russia, but the US still 'carefully hides' M1 Abrams in Ukraine

According to Military Watch, the majority of German-made Leopard 2 tanks supplied to the Ukrainian Army have been rendered inoperable after fighting with Russian forces, with more than a quarter completely destroyed and the rest damaged beyond repair.

Foreign Affairs, the magazine of the Council on Foreign Relations, America's most influential foreign policy magazine, has emphasized that Western tanks were once expected to be “game-changing weapons.” “ However, of the nearly 100 Leopard 2s in service in Ukraine, at least 26 have been destroyed; the others are unusable due to repair and maintenance problems .”

While Leopard 2 tanks supplied to Ukraine by many European countries are fighting on the front lines, the M1 Abrams tanks supplied by the US are still being kept in the rear. This is explained by the US side that the Ukrainian Army is “ enhancing the armor of the Abrams to be able to withstand attacks from UAVs of the Russian Army ”.

Images of destroyed Leopard 2 tanks in Ukraine. (Photo: Military Watch)

Many experts speculate that after delaying the delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, Washington sought to ensure that the Abrams in Ukraine would not be deployed in high-intensity combat like the Leopard. The purpose of this was to avoid damage and damage to the reputation of the US defense sector.

The US State Department cited Ukraine’s lack of the necessary support infrastructure to maintain its tank force. In November 2023, Forbes reported that the Ukrainian military had lost “ a quarter of its best German-made tanks .”

Previously, Leopard 2 was also predicted by many experts to suffer very heavy losses when confronting Russian forces. Leopard was deployed by the Turkish army to fight against the Islamic State IS and Kurdish rebels in Syria and Iraq. At that time, senior Turkish officers complained about the heavy losses of Leopard tanks against militia forces.

Leopard 2A6s were first reported to have suffered heavy losses in Ukraine in early June, just days after they were deployed to attack Russian positions. Since then, footage has emerged of Russian forces capturing abandoned US- and German-made armored vehicles.

British Challenger 2 tank destroyed in Ukraine.

Since the failed counterattack, there have been increasing images of Leopard 2s being destroyed by a variety of weapons, from mines, Kornet missiles to Vikr-1 missiles launched by Russian attack helicopters.

Alongside the German Leopard 2, the British Challenger 2 tank also suffered losses, with two destroyed out of 14 delivered to Ukraine. In addition to issues with limited armour protection and high maintenance requirements, the Leopard tanks performed poorly in the winter mud of Ukraine – a problem their predecessors faced during World War II.

The Russian T-80 tank with a gas turbine engine, the same type used on the American M1 Abrams tank, has proven to perform much better in such terrain.

Some Western sources have sought to justify claims that German tank designs have performance and survivability issues, often blaming the tactics used by Ukrainian forces and their failure to adopt NATO standard operating procedures as the main cause of the losses suffered.

Le Hung (Source: Military Watch)

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