Soldiers of 60th ‘Ingulets’ Brigade Capture Enemy T-80BVM Tank

1 December, 2024 The process of evacuating the tank. Source: Ingulets Brigade Soldiers of the 60th 'Inhulets' Separate Mechanized Brigade captured a modernized T-80BVM Russian tank.

The brigade's press service released a video documenting the capture. The situation began when aerial reconnaissance of the Inhulets Brigade spotted a damaged, but still repairable, enemy T-80BVM tank. The enemy combat vehicle was 300 meters away from the enemy positions, but in an area where evacuation might be possible.

Under the tank's homemade "grill" protection, the factory-installed grill with dynamic protection elements is visible. This could indicate that the captured T-80BVM was modernized in 2023.

The brigade's tank battalion cooperated with their counterparts from the 98th Infantry Battalion, whose engineers removed minefields to evacuate the tank. After that, the tank crews and engineers from the 98th Battalion approached the tank, inspected it, and ensured that the fasteners were secure. An FPV drone was hovering over the tank, and its warhead did not detonate upon contact with the tank's grill, so it was safely removed by an infantry engineer.

The operation was complicated by the tank's location in a mine pocket and by the homemade modernization carried out by its former crew, which did not allow the use of standard towing shackles. The tank crews decided to use a suitable part from a BMP-1. Preparations for the evacuation and the actual evacuation of the T-80BVM took place at night.

Source: 'Ingulets' Brigade

During the operation, the Ukrainian evacuation tank was targeted by enemy firepower. After the evacuation of the combat vehicle, it was repaired and put back into service. In total, according to the ORYX OSINT, Russia has lost about 177 T-80BVMs of various generations in the full-scale war.

Of this number, at least 35 combat vehicles were captured by Ukrainian troops.