In late 2023, the Ukrainian army’s 4th Tank Brigade went to extraordinary lengths to kluge together a unique T-72 from the wreckage of no fewer than three different tank models.
This Frankenstein’s monster of a tank underscored Ukraine’s worsening tank crisis as its faltering southern counteroffensive, which kicked off that June but quickly got mired in dense Russian minefields, costing it hundreds of armored vehicles it couldn’t afford to lose.
A year and a half later, one Russian unit in Ukraine is doing something similar—albeit far, far sadder. It’s trying to piece together the remains of three damaged Moskvich compact cars in order to create one working Moskvich compact car, for use as an ambulance.
