Ukraine's revamped T‑64 tanks hold ground against Russian forces
Although the Russians have almost entirely taken over the crucial city of Toreck, the Ukrainians are endeavouring to hold on in the suburbs and the mine area despite the significant numerical superiority of the Russians. Often, the lives of Ukrainian soldiers are saved by the armoured charges of T-64BW tanks. We explain the reasons for such use and the performance of these machines.
After months of fierce urban fighting, the Russians have nearly captured all of Toreck, which was the main obstacle to taking the important Kostiantynivka, one of the logistical centres for the Ukrainians in the Donetsk region.
The video below shows a situation where soldiers from the 28th Mechanised Brigade were trapped in a building with Russians who used the morning fog to infiltrate Ukrainian positions. Unable to cope with the more numerous Russians, they needed help.
Drones proved ineffective, and artillery lacked precision and had excessive destructive power. Therefore, a tank, believed to be a T-64BW, was dispatched to provide assistance, accurately firing upon the sections of the building occupied by the Russians, thereby saving the situation for the Ukrainian soldiers in the building.
T-64BW tanks - a unique USSR design after modernisation as the core of Ukraine's armed forces
The core of the Ukrainian armoured forces before the war consisted of T-64 tanks developed by the Malyshev Factory in Kharkiv during the 1960s. It was a forward-thinking design that proved too complicated for the USSR, which decided to focus on the simpler and easier-to-use T-72 tanks. Nevertheless, both tank models coexisted in the USSR military service, but T-64s were never exported until the Soviet Union collapsed.
After the USSR collapsed, T-64s played a crucial role in Ukrainian armoured units, owing to the location of the factory producing these machines, situated in Kharkiv. Meanwhile, the Russians focused on enhancing locally produced tanks from the T-72 family.
Over the years, T-64 tanks have been repeatedly improved. Modernisations began in the 1980s and have continued over the following decades. The base for the Ukrainians is the T-64BW variant, which has evolved into the T-64BM Bulat, T-64BW 2017, T-64BM2 Bulat, and T-64BW 2022 produced in collaboration with Poland and the Czech Republic.
Old T-64BWs after modifications are still a formidable weapon
All these Ukrainian modernisations are characterised by the installation of advanced reactive armour "Nozh," which surpasses the older versions of reactive armour Kontakt-1 and Kontakt-5. The "Nozh" armour employs shaped charges instead of traditional ones, effectively protecting against single-charge warheads and APFSDS-T kinetic penetrators. It is even possible that a hit on a T-64 tank with a kinetic penetrator in the upper part of the "Nozh" block could result in it being sliced into pieces.
Moreover, since 2017, T-64BW tanks have been equipped with a fire control system with a thermal imaging camera, providing its crew with a significant advantage in identifying and eliminating targets compared to all post-Soviet T-72 tank models below the B3 version.
There are even recordings where Ukrainian T-64BW tanks can win duels with newer Russian T-72B3/B3M models. However, it should be noted that T-64BWs, even after modifications, lag behind Russian T-90M tanks or Western-supplied tanks to Ukraine such as the Leopard 2 or the M1A1 Abrams.
