Ukraine 'cannibalizing' US-supplied fighting vehicles – WaPo
The Ukrainian military is facing spare part shortages for US-provided Bradley fighting vehicles, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. The newspaper also cited an anonymous Pentagon official as saying that approximately a dozen of the vehicles provided to Kiev have sustained damage beyond repair.
Several unnamed Ukrainian service members told the Post that extensive Russian minefields pose the biggest threat to their hardware, while American reporters saw six Bradleys in need of repair in one location alone near the front line in Zaporozhye Region.
The Ukrainian troops detailed how they have to make formal requests for spare parts to their commanders, who presumably only have limited reserves at their disposal.
According to the Post, Ukrainian soldiers routinely resort to cannibalizing more severely damaged Bradleys – labeling them “donors” – to repair other vehicles.
“Before donors, we were just doing minimal repairs and waiting for others to be damaged,” one Ukrainian service member told the American newspaper.
The “donor” vehicles are then reportedly sent to Poland for more sophisticated repairs. However, Ukrainian troops are trying to minimize the removal of hardware as it typically takes weeks before being returned to the front lines.
Meanwhile, an anonymous US military official told the Post that he was unaware of any issues related to the delivery of spare parts from American stocks. He surmised that bottlenecks, however, could exist within Ukraine’s own supply chains.
The paper quoted the official as confirming the destruction of approximately a dozen Bradleys so far. Meanwhile, the Post noted that “open-source” military research firm Oryx had counted several dozen more units of the US-made hardware that have sustained damage of varying severity since the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in early June.
Out of the 190 fighting vehicles Washington has pledged to provide to Kiev, more than half have been received by the Ukrainian military, the unnamed US official revealed.
The Bradley is a tracked and lightly armored vehicle operated by a crew of three, and can carry six more troops. It is armed with a 25mm autocannon and TOW anti-tank missiles.
When the administration of US President Joe Biden announced its decision to provide Ukraine with the hardware back in January, the Pentagon described the vehicles as “tank-killers,” claiming they would provide “a level of firepower and armor that will bring advantages on the battlefield.”
Moscow, in turn, warned that all Western-supplied armor would be destroyed, claiming that shipments would only prolong the conflict unnecessarily.
