Russia Reveals Plan to Combat New Wave of Western Weapons: 'Tank Hunters'

JON JACKSON 

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Russia is assembling and training anti-tank units to counter Ukraine's Western-supplied armor.

Ukraine has already received powerful German and British tanks, and American Abrams tanks are set to arrive by this fall.

Russia's so-called "tank hunters" are currently being trained by veteran instructors, according to a report from Russian state media.

The anti-tank units will reportedly be equipped with guided missile launchers and reconnaissance drones.

Russia is assembling and training troop units of what's been dubbed "tank hunters" to combat modern armor provided to Ukraine from its Western allies, according to an official who spoke to Russian state media.

Evgeny Arifulin, who heads a military training center in Russia, told the Kremlin-owned Zvezda TV channel on Sunday that Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov had ordered the creation of these so-called "tank hunters" or "tank killers."

Ukraine recently received Challenger 2 tanks from the United Kingdom and German Leopard 2 tanks, as well as Cougar armored trucks and Stryker fighter vehicles from the United States. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's forces are also expected to be delivered American Abrams tanks later this year after the U.S. announced in March that it would send older M1-A1 models since a new version of the tanks would take a year or more to arrive to the war-torn country.

"This is large-scale, systemic work which is being carried out at state level," Arifulin said to Zvezda TV, according to a translation by Russian state outlet RT. "We know all [the tanks'] strengths and weaknesses and train the personnel [to fight the vehicles]."

Leopard 2 tanks destined for delivery to Ukraine stand parked at the training ground in Augustdorf, Germany, on February 1. Russia is reportedly training troop units whose main task will be destroying the tanks Ukraine has received from its Western allies.INA FASSBENDER/AFP/GETTY

RT reported that Arifulin said the "tank hunters" were currently being trained with an emphasis on learning how to attack Western armor. He also reportedly said the Russian military has been studying the Western tanks that have recently arrived to Ukraine as well as the anticipated M1 Abrams that is expected to be delivered by fall.

Arifulin told Zvezda TV that veteran instructors are training the anti-tank units. RT wrote that Zvezda TV reported that the tank-hunter groups are made up of a "small number" of soldiers armed with guided missile launchers and reconnaissance drones.

Guy McCardle, managing editor of Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP), told Newsweek that the Western tanks being sent to Ukraine are outfitted with reactive armor, which gives more protection, "but no tank is unkillable."

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The Russian "tank hunters" would likely be using 9M133 Kornet anti-tank systems, McCardle said. He described the Kornets as "roughly equivalent to our Javelins" but with "over twice the effective range, allowing for greater standoff distance while firing on the enemy."

McCardle also speculated that the Russian anti-tank units "may end up using depleted uranium rounds that they so roundly criticized the West for sending to Ukraine."

Ever since the beginning of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine last February, Kremlin officials have warned Western countries that supplying Kyiv with weapons such as tanks could result in an escalation of the conflict.

After the Biden administration reversed course on its initial hesitancy to provide Ukraine with Abrams tanks, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov denounced the decision in comments made to reporters in late January.

According to Reuters, Peskov called the U.S. plan of supplying Ukraine with Abrams tanks "disastrous" before adding that the tanks would "burn just like all the others."

But McCardle said the public announcement of new "tank hunters" indicates to him "that Moscow is seriously worried about the tanks the West is sending to Ukraine."

Zelensky, meanwhile, has publicly thanked Western allies for supplying tanks while calling for more to be sent. According to the BBC, the Ukrainian leader said during a late January address that his nation "must form such a tank force, such a freedom force that after it strikes, tyranny will never again rise up."

Newsweek reached out to Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.