Footage Shows One of the Last Leopard 2A6 Tanks Destroyed in Kursk

Footage from the frontlines in the Russian Kursk region, which has been under assault by Ukrainian forces since early August, has shown the destruction of one of the Ukrainian Army’s scarce Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks in a drone attack. Although footage has showed the destruction of Ukraine’s other high performing Western supplied tank class the M1A1 Abrams with growing frequency, the Leopard 2A6 fleet, having been committed to the front much earlier, has been much less available for combat and thus has been seen on the frontlines much less often. In early January it was revealed by German sources that only a fraction of Ukraine’s Leopard 2A6 tanks remained available for service, with the class having taken widespread combat losses. Although Ukraine has received Western-built talks in considerable numbers, the large majority of these have been classes widely considered obsolete such as the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2A4, with the much more capable Leopard 2A6 being reserved for elite units such as the 47th Mechanised Brigade.

The Leopard 2A6 was among the very first Western-supplied vehicles filmed being disabled and destroyed by Russian forces during mass offensives against Russian positions from early June 2023, when the class made its combat debut. Alongside combat losses, Leopard 2s have also been captured by Russian forces both for display in the country and for study. These have included both the Leopard 2A6, and the much less capable but far more widely available Leopard 2A4. A Leopard 2A4 was confirmed captured in December 2023, after which a Leopard 2A6 was shown captured in April 2024. Footage in early September showed the capture of another Leopard 2A6 alongside an M1 Abrams near the strategically located town of Avdiivka in the disputed Donbas region. While Germany and other European states have pledged to increase supplies of Leopard 1 tanks, neither Berlin nor Washington have shown any signs of plans to export further Leopard 2A6 or M1A1 Abrams tanks, which makes losses of these more capable vehicles particularly difficult for the Ukrainian Army to recover from. Ukraine’s most capable Soviet origin tank class the T-80, which like the Abrams uses a powerful gas turbine engine, has also been filmed taking repeated losses.