The surrealism of war leads us to the frontline of Pokrovsk accompanied by Sergii, a Ukrainian officer who is moved by Julio Iglesias. The playback of "Me olvidé de vivir" softens the resounding and atmospheric sound of the artillery. "From running through life without brakes," sings Sergii with perfect intonation. The electronic warfare that tries to divert drones across the battlefield makes our GPS go crazy, but the Ukrainian lieutenant knows the way and prevents us from taking the wrong route that would lead us to Russian positions.
Upon arrival, the only civilian inhabitant of a village whose name we cannot reveal invites us to have beef soup and some shots of vodka in the company of the tank crews of the 155th Brigade of Ukraine. He has three reasons to do so: they don't usually see many journalists around here, morale has improved in recent days with the stabilization of the Pokrovsk front, the most active in Donbass, and it is advisable to start consuming all the alcohol to avoid leaving anything for the enemy in case they reactivate their offensive and reach this far.
If this invasion is the offspring of Cold War frustrations, it makes sense to use its machinery of death. It hasn't been easy to find them, but they finally allow us to see some of the 29 Leopard 2A4 tanks delivered to Ukraine by Spain. Dmitro, with the war name "Green," a friendly commander of one of them, quickly walks up a hill to reach a line of trees stripped bare by winter. Under their bare branches, covered with camouflage nets to go unnoticed by Russian spy drones, several Leopard 2 A4 tanks rest, covered in mud and showing signs of recent use.
- The best thing about these tanks is that they save lives. The key in their design is crew protection. They are very well armored and carry ammunition separate from the compartment where we work. It's not like in Soviet tanks. Any internal explosion would result in being burned alive.
- Could you mention something where this tank falls short?
- The only area where Soviet designs are superior is in being able to advance when the terrain becomes muddy [pointing to the black soil of Ukraine, now frozen with the cold].
Painted in olive green (not with the traditional NATO tricolor), they appear much more modernized and powerful than anything Ukraine has in most of its mechanized brigades, those old T64, T72, and T80 tanks that are highly vulnerable to drones and of which Russia, sharing the same designs, has lost almost 3,800 units according to open sources (Oryx).
- Do tanks make sense in modern warfare?
- No. Drones now dominate the battlefield. A ¤1,500 model can destroy, if it hits the right spot, a vehicle like this one, worth six million dollars. Additionally, tanks are not being used against other tanks as in World War II.
Dmitro invites us to take the loader's position of the cannon while he shows us everything he controls from his station, which not only includes his tank but, as a lieutenant, he must coordinate the work of two others.
The space is not as narrow as in a Soviet-designed tank. The buttons still have their factory indicators in German. "We don't change any signs because it doesn't make sense. We memorize what each button is for, as there aren't that many that each of the four crew members needs to know," he says while putting on his tank crew helmet with padding and headphones. "When the cannon fires, you can feel the recoil and the sound, but the smoke disappears in a few seconds thanks to the fans."
The periscopes, which open 360 degrees in the turret, are large and clear enough for the commander to see the horizon sharply. The gunner also has highly precise German telescopic sights and a ballistic computer that adjusts the type of shot depending on temperature, wind, altitude, and anything else that affects shot accuracy. Some models have night vision while others do not, depending on their year of manufacture. The turret is moved with a steering wheel operated by the gunner. All crew members must understand each other's roles to substitute for them if they are injured.
- How long does it take to reload and fire again when attacking a target?
- From 30 to 40 seconds. It depends, for example, on things like the loader's height. The lower, the more space and the faster the movement.
The combat tank provided by the Ministry of Defense has only had two additions: additional reactive armor, consisting of metal boxes with internal explosives to deflect projectiles upon impact, and a huge "anti-drone barbecue", as they call it, a deployable net that covers the entire turret to prevent these armored vehicle predators from directly hitting the steel and getting trapped like a fly in a spider's web. They start it up for maintenance, and the massive diesel engine gurgles before roaring.
- Have you already participated in any attack missions?
- Yes, in several missions. In one, I had to tow another damaged tank to a very dangerous area. In another, we had to clear the way for the infantry by firing at Russian positions...
- There's always some fear, but this combat tank makes you feel very secure. The cohesion of the crew also matters. There are four of us inside, I'm 28 years old, and I have much older colleagues who are nothing like me personally, yet inside the tank, we function as one body. If we didn't, our lives would be in more danger.
The brigade they belong to is the 155th, named Anna of Kiev, in honor of the princess who married the French king Henry I in the Reims Cathedral to become the queen of France from 1051 to 1060. However, its brief journey has been surrounded by scandal. It was formed in France with newly recruited soldiers, as a promise to Volodymyr Zelensky by Emmanuel Macron during the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Additionally, it was equipped with French equipment (Caesar cannons and AMX10 light tanks, both of French production), in addition to the aforementioned Spanish Leopard A4 tanks and other armored vehicles from Germany.
Upon their return to Ukraine, they were deployed in the most active area of the front (between Shevchenko and Pokrovsk, where Russia concentrated its advance) and suffered many casualties in the early days, mainly due to lack of experience and the absence of veterans to unite the unit. This led to a multiplication of desertions in their ranks in January, and their commander Dmytro Ryumshin was arrested by Ukraine's security service on charges of inaction by military authorities.
"Fortunately, the situation has since normalized, many of the deserters have returned, and we have managed to stabilize the front for weeks now," says Lieutenant Sergii. According to other specialized sources analyzing maps, such as Deep State or the Institute for the Study of War, this is true: on this front, the Russians have not advanced a single meter for at least two weeks, perhaps due to the enormous wear caused by months of a grueling offensive with thousands of casualties. But the experience with this brigade, composed only of recruits, has changed President Zelensky's approach. There will no longer be new brigades created; instead, all new recruits will reinforce existing ones to merge with the veterans.
After the offer of soup and vodka, as we leave the front, Sergii chooses Raphael's music in the car to mask the sound of war: "We already knew Julio Iglesias here during the USSR years as the global star he is, but we are starting to get to know Raphael now. He's quite a character."