It appears the 4th Tank Brigade will be the first Ukrainian army unit to operate those Leopard 2 tanks Kyiv’s allies have pledged to the war effort. The battle-weary unit’s new tanks could save it from a slow collapse.
One big clue is the presence of a 4th Tank Brigade officer, Maj. Vadim Khodak, at the training range in Poland where Ukrainian officers are learning to operate the four-person, 69-ton tank with its tough armor, precise optics and powerful 120-millimeter smoothbore gun.
“The vehicle is of high quality, very good,” Khodak said of the German-designed Leopard 2. “What I like is that our soldiers like it very much.”
