Transnistrian tank crews managed to silence the enemy’s howitzers. But one tank was hit. He caught fire and exploded. It was the first T-64 lost in battles.
Later, T-64BV will take part in repelling a Moldovan strike on Bender. Several cars will be lost there, but the application of T-64 will make a decisive contribution to the victory of Transnistrians. And now the battalion of these tanks is the main strike force of the army of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic. He is not only actively involved in combat training, but also regularly takes part in solemn parades.
During the events in Ukraine, the T-64 tanks were regularly a factor in irritating the masses. Remember the horror stories of the Orange Revolution, when every now and then frightened by rumors that tanks with "Donetsk numbers" were approaching Kiev.
Under Viktor Yanukovych, the issue of the massive write-off of T-64 and their cutting with Western assistance was seriously discussed.
When the second “standing on the Maidan” began, any mention of tanks led to terrible arousal. Someone somewhere saw on the railway platforms one or two tanks, which, allegedly, were sent to smash the protesters in Kiev, and then it was discussed for several days. Of course, the “sixty-fours” did not appear in the Ukrainian capital.
After the start of events in the Crimea and in the east of Ukraine, long columns of armored vehicles stretched towards the border with Russia, of course, not without T-64. True, tankers suffered the first losses not from the Russian weapons or from the "separatists", without any battle during the removal of equipment from storage, several tanks caught fire and exploded.
The loss of a T-64 tank in the Crimea could have been the loss of a whole tank battalion. And at first, Russian troops, who did not have a single tank on the peninsula, moved several “sixty-fours” closer to the border with Ukraine. But then all the combat vehicles were reassembled and returned to their previous owners on the trains. The Ukrainian military was surprised that the tanks arrived in fairly good
condition.
The transition to the hot stage of events in the South-East of Ukraine testified that the use of tanks there is only a matter of time. And so the other day T-64 were thrown into battle.
In conditions when modern anti-tank weapons are clearly lacking in the necessary quantities of opposing Kiev authorities, defeat in the forehead of T-64 is almost impossible. This is especially true of machines with dynamic protection. Therefore, the militia only remains to knock out optical devices and sights with sniper fire and try to hit the tanks in the side. But so far not a single fact of complete destruction has been recorded.
It can be assumed that the scale of the use of tanks will only increase, and along with the old T-64B and WB certainly upgraded BM "Bulat" will be put into battle.