Ammunition burst: one tank was destroyed and two others damaged

The strange event in which a T-72 tank has exploded at a Russian base in Belgorod

Russian military bases have been the scene of a long series of strange events in recent months. The last one happened yesterday in Belgorod.

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That region of Russia, located next to the border with Ukraine (in the vicinity of the city of Kharkov), was the protagonist of a new accident at a Russian army base, as reported by the Russian outlet Bel.ru. The news states the following: "During the repair of the T-72 tank in the Belgorod region, ammunition detonated: one tank was destroyed and two others were damaged". The Russian media adds de "the fire at the technical and repair base started on the night of January 12. For preliminary reasons, the emergency arose due to a violation of fire safety during repairs".

A piece of news that reveals the shortcomings of the Russian army

So, they were repairing an old T-72 tank at night, unusual but likely. So far good. But let's continue reading the news: "Due to a fire, ammunition detonated in a tank, as a result of which it was destroyed. The fire spread to two other T-72s that were nearby , but they were saved. Firefighters arrived at the scene of the emergency two hours after the fire and extinguished the fire in half an hour. There were no casualties."

The data on the delay of the firefighters is especially striking: the firefighters took no less than two hours to arrive, and it can be deduced that the military base did not have its own firefighting equipment either, since they were the firemen who extinguished the fire in half an hour. In other words, the destroyed tank was burning for more than two hours. It is a rather strange situation and it reveals the shortcomings of the Russian military bases.

From the fact that there were no casualties, assuming it is true, it can be deduced that the personnel carrying out the repairs fled as soon as the fire started, since Russian tanks are notorious for their propensity to jump into the air when a fire breaks out inside, because their automatic loaders carry separate projectiles and projection charges, and these are not protected. It is the reason why in case of impact, Russian tanks tend to shoot their turrets into the air.

Medvedev laments that Ukraine has more modern T-72s than the Russians

This week, according to the Russian news agency Interfax, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, admitted at a meeting of a defense industry working group that Russia's adversaries are ahead of the Russians in terms of regards the modernization of the T-72 tanks, a model of the Soviet era: "our opponents financed the modernization of 100 T-72 Tanks, I emphasize, not some foreign tanks, but T-72" . Russia is losing a huge number of these tanks, the most numerous in its armored fleet.

According to Oryxspioenkop.com , of the 1,623 tanks lost by Russia, 920 are of different variants of the T-72. Meanwhile, Ukraine has received a considerable number of tanks of this type, mainly from Poland (which in addition to modernized versions of the T-72 has the PT-91 Twardy, based on that model), but also from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. These will soon be joined by more tanks advanced, such as the Challenger 2 and the Leopard 2 that have already been announced by the United Kingdom, Poland and Finland.

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