The Ukrainian military is forced to remove spare parts from the same combat vehicles for the speedy return to service of the padded American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. A large number of destroyed and damaged Western armored vehicles forces resort to cannibalization equipment.
The Washington Post newspaper reports that of the delivered 190 Bradley machines, at least 12 have already been destroyed, and a couple dozen more were seriously damaged. Ukrainian mechanics repair the least damaged infantry fighting vehicles on the battlefield on the spot, removing usable parts from more damaged vehicles.
Most of the Bradleys under repair were damaged by mine explosions. Some of them can only take a few hours to repair. Others take several days. Some are tagged as "donors", which means the Ukrainians will remove usable parts to install in other, less damaged Bradleys, and then fill the donor car with broken parts before sending it to a large-scale repair facility in Poland.
writes WP.
The authors of the publication emphasize that the hopes that American technology would crush the Russians were misplaced. The losses of Western tanks and infantry fighting vehicles were expected, but the number of vehicles destroyed in the first days of the counteroffensive was significant, which forced the Armed Forces to change tactics.
Ukrainian forces have changed tactics - clearing minefields by hand and then advancing on foot to better protect the equipment
– reminds WP that Western equipment costs much more than the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.