- A Ukrainian tank crew was filmed lauding the Abrams tank as easy to drive and operate.
- One gunner said he learned to use the tank’s weapons in a week, while another said the tank drove “like a scooter.”
- The report comes as Ukrainian state-backed outlet Army TV pushed back on an assessment that Kyiv withdrew its Abrams.
A Ukrainian tank gunner and driver were filmed heaping praise on US-supplied Abrams tanks in a state-backed media report, boasting that they’ve been easy to learn to operate.
“The first time I saw what was inside after the T-64, I thought it would take a month to get the hang of it,” said the gunner, identified as Koka of Ukraine’s 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, in a video uploaded on Tuesday by Army TV.
“But it’s literally very fast. You can master it in a week,” Koka said.
Inside the Abrams M1A1 used by his crew, Koka gave the cameras a tour of the internal systems. “There’s nothing so complicated here,” he told Army TV.
The military news outlet is run by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. The report comes after Pentagon officials told the Associated Press that Kyiv had withdrawn its Abrams tanks from the front lines over concerns they were vulnerable to drones.
Army TV pushed back on the assessment, writing in a caption that “despite rumors, no one took these vehicles away from the front line.”
Unlike most of Army TV’s YouTube videos, the report was notably titled and captioned in English, and not Ukrainian.
The video featured crew members from the 47th lauding the Abrams tank and alleging that the heavy-duty armor is still present on the front lines.
The Pentagon’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
Tank driver Alexey said the Abrams’ pedals and control apparatus made it “like a scooter.”
“Is it easy to drive like a scooter?” Army TV’s reporter Yevhen Nazarenko asked.
“Yes,” said Alexey, smiling.
Clips showed the crew members driving Nazarenko around in the Abrams, but it’s unclear when or where the video was shot.
Alexey and Koka’s commander, Dmytro, told Army TV that the Abrams’ armor was effective against Russian anti-tank missiles like the Kornet.
But they wished for dynamic plating to protect its flanks and turret, with Alexey saying the turret could be breached.
“It is said that it is the strongest,” he said of the turret’s armor. “That the ‘Hand of Zeus’ will not pierce it, but it is not so. Unfortunately, it is not so.”
Ukraine was promised 31 Abrams tanks by the US in January 2023, with the first batch arriving in September after crews trained for months in Germany to operate them. US aid to Kyiv later stalled due to political resistance on Capitol Hill from Republican lawmakers, until a $61 billion aid package was voted through last month.
Weapons, ammunition, and military hardware from US stockpiles are expected to make up at least $25 billion of the funding.
The Abrams has defeated Soviet armor before, but several deployed in Ukraine have suffered setbacks. At least five of the tanks were lost in combat, and another three were damaged, The New York Times reported.
In late April, the Russian military displayed an abandoned Abrams M1A1 at an exhibition called the “Trophies of the Russian Army,” which showcased NATO equipment seized during the war.
