War in Ukraine

By Wen Jian Chung

My main motivation in writing these books was a certain dissatisfaction with existing English literature on Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian tanks, especially post-2014. While a lot of information has surfaced over the past 30 years, most English literature on Cold War Soviet tanks seems content with rehashing the same tropes that existed in the 1980s, especially when it comes to the misunderstood T-64. Post-1991 Russian tank development has generally received significant attention in the West due to Russia’s perceived geopolitical importance, but Ukrainian tank development has been almost completely ignored. Yet, by looking at how the Ukrainians have rethought their priorities in tank development and changed the way they trained, one can see a little bit of how the Armed Forces of Ukraine were transformed from the ill-prepared force of 2014 to one that held the line and ultimately humiliated the Russian military’s failed attempt at regime change in 2022.

I also wanted to talk about some of the aspects of these tanks that are not so easily appreciated by simply looking at the specification tables that usually form the base for comparison when talking about them. Things like the fire control or communications systems, or its ability to handle mud. I also tried to put each tank in the context of the Russo–Ukrainian War, and how these and other qualities may have influenced the successes or failures that either side has experienced, at least up to the time of writing in June 2023. I do not wish to claim in any sense to have written the definitive account of Russian and Ukrainian tanks, but I hope that these books will encourage greater interest in the role the tank has played in this war since 2014, especially on the Ukrainian side.