[Tee tiong huat]

With the prospect of facing Western tanks in Ukraine as Poland and the United Kingdom reportedly finalize on sending its Leopard-2 and Challenger-2 Main Battle Tanks (MBT), Russia has appointed its top tankman – its military chief – to direct operations.

Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov is a career armored corps officer. His transfer comes in the backdrop of Russia’s T-90M being inducted and the introduction of the modernized ‘M’ version of the Ka-52 ‘Alligator’ attack helicopter. Moscow appears to be preparing a classic tank war in Ukraine.

Europe’s ‘Tanking Will’ To Arm Ukraine

Polish, German, and British leaders have symbolically announced approval for sending the machines. Still, they have not gone ahead with it owing to four factors – permanently souring already tense ties with Russia, waiting for one European country to make the first move, awaiting a nod from Washington, and depleting their ammunition stockpiles. Gerasimov’s appointment comes against this backdrop, where Russian T-90 and T-72B3 could exchange fire with Leopards and Challengers in the east.

Russia is preparing for the clash, heavily advertising the T-90M, the latest version of its most powerful tank. Since December last year, it announced new batches of tanks reaching the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), Central Military District (CMD), and PMC Wagner units.

Russian Telegram channels have recorded tank crews boasting about the T-90M ‘Proryv’ (meaning ‘breakthrough’) and challenging the Western machines.

The Russian Army, meanwhile, has received ten upgraded Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters of the ‘M’ variant. The Ka-52M has a new GOES-451M electro-optical targeting turret with increased range, stronger landing gear wheels, improved cockpit ergonomics, and better adaptation to night vision goggles. It can also carry the latest LMUR missile.

Incidentally, this video of the Ka-52 being destroyed by its crew was published just days after another video showing the evacuation of a Russian Ka-52 by Ukrainian forces went viral.

The helicopter with a tale number ’18’ being towed in the video was reportedly left at the Gostomel Airport by the Russian troops at the onset of the invasion, and no effort was made to recover the helicopter for the next 40 days.

The video shows the Ukrainian military loading the helicopter, triggering speculations that the United States was already examining the technology. Some netizens even wondered if the helicopter was being loaded and sent to the United States to decode the technology of Russia’s deadliest attack