Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

crissindahouse said:

It's time for Western tanks. If he's talking like Russia is already fighting against the West then he can also fight against Western tanks. He also mentions the USSR way too much so that every other country which was part of it should know they would be next to 100%

Western tanks work very differently to Russian/Soviet designs. Training troops on those would take many months.

While I agree, Ukraine would need some stopgap or upgrades for the tanks they have. Thus my suggestions:

Concerning western tanks: With the German Ringtausch system, they could provide older Leopard 2 tanks (A4 is pretty prevalent in several countries and should still trounce anything that's older than a T-90) and equip them with newer A6/A6M/A7 versions instead. Troop training for those tanks would be in Europe, close to Ukraine but out of reach for Putin.

For the Stopgap upgrade: If the facilities in Poland are still working and with EU financing, Ukraine could send some of their captured T72 tanks to Poland, where they could then be repaired and upgraded to PT-91 Twardy standard, strongly strengthening it's defenses, mobility and targeting systems. This way there would be practically no crew retaining needed and Ukraine would still benefit from having a tank that is superior to most of what Russia is fielding, if in limited numbers due to probably slow production.

However, I think Ukraine would benefit more from having some more modern IFVs. Their own BTR-4 ain't bad, but numbers are limited. Outside of that model, the vast majority are still soviet-era BMP-1 and BMP-2, which are pretty outdated by now.