Footage Shows Destruction of Ukrainian Army’s German Leopard 2 Tank: Another Kill For Russia’s T-72?

Drone footage released on July 30 has shown the destruction of a Ukrainian Army Leopard 2A4 main battle tank near the town of Kurakhovo in the disputed Donbas region. The vehicle was shown firing at an unseen target while manoeuvring in a wooded strip between two open fields, before being destroyed by return fire possibly by a Russian tank. Although tank-on-tank engagements have been relatively rare since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian War, Russian armour has achieved multiple kills against Western-supplied vehicles. One of the most notable prior examples was an engagement in early March between a Russian Army T-72B3 and a Ukrainian M1A1 Abrams near Avdiivka, a key Donbas town which had recently been abandoned by Ukrainian forces after they took extreme casualties. The T-72B3 forms the backbone of the Russian Army’s tank fleet and is by far the most widely fielded in the country, and achieved a one shot kill against the Abrams. 

The Leopard 2 was among the very first Western-supplied vehicles filmed disabled and destroyed by Russian forces during mass offensives against Russian positions from early June 2023, when the class made its combat debut. The vehicles destroyed in the early days of engagements that summer were mostly Leopard 2A6s, which are available in much fewer numbers but are very significantly better armoured and have more modern fire controls. Alongside combat losses, Leopard 2s have also been captured by Russian forces both for display in the country and for study. A Leopard 2A4 was confirmed captured in December 2023, after which a Leopard 2A6 was shown captured in April 2024. The release of footage showing the destruction of the Leopard 2A4 notably comes within just hours of footage released confirming a strike on a U.S.-supplied M1A1 Abrams tank using precision guided artillery. Abrams tanks are fielded in far fewer numbers than Leopards, and were introduced to the theatre much later, with the vehicles seeing their first engagements with Russian forces in February - eight months after Leopard 2A6s first saw combat in June the previous year. Both tank classes were hyped considerably by Western and Ukrainian media outlets, which presented them as a path to major advances on the frontlines, which resulted in serious disappointment when they took serious losses without having a significant impact on the frontlines.