Snow Leopards: Ukraine’s New Leopard 1A5 Tanks Are Getting Ready For Winter Combat

A Leopard 1A5 in winter camouflage. Via social media

Some of Ukraine’s German-made Leopard 1A5 tanks are sporting winter camouflage. But these “snow Leopards” don’t yet have the layers of reactive armor that they obviously need—and which some Ukrainian tankers assure us are going to be added soon.

The best outcome for the units equipped with the 40-ton, four-person tanks—nearly 200 of which a German-Danish-Dutch consortium has pledged to Ukraine—is that all of their Leopard 1A5s get winter camouflage and reactive armor.

Camouflaged and up-armored, the Leopard 1s would meet a growing need for mobile fire-support along the most critical sectors of the 600-mile front of Russia’s 23-month wider war on Ukraine. Especially around Avdiivka.

It’s there in Avdiivka that the equivalent of a Ukrainian division—half a dozen mechanized and tank brigades—since mid-October has been fighting a determined mobile defense against a much larger force including two Russian field armies. That’s maybe 10,000 Ukrainian troops against 40,000 Russians.

Against all odds, the Avdiivka garrison not only has held out, it has inflicted devastating casualties on the Russians, killing and maiming 13,000 attackers in the first two months alone while keeping down their own casualties.

The Russians also have lost hundreds of tanks and fighting vehicles around Avdiivka—far more than they immediately can replace. The imbalance of battlefield losses in this one sector—perhaps 10 to one in favor of Ukrainian forces—makes a mockery of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s stated intention for Russia to defeat Ukraine by outlasting Ukraine.

Tanks have played an important role in the defense of Avdiivka. T-64BVs belonging to to the Ukrainian army’s 1st Tank and 116th Mechanized Brigades, as well as Leopard 2A6s with the 47th Mechanized Brigade, have rolled into the no-man’s-land around Avdiivka to engage Russian tanks, blast Russian infantry and rescue isolated Ukrainian troops.

The tanks aren’t the most important weapons in the grueling battle. Artillery and drones always are more important. And Ukraine’s nimble, well-protected M-2 fighting vehicles with their accurate 25-millimeter auto-cannons rank a close second to the drones and howitzers.

But tanks still matter, a lot, and the Avdiivka garrison surely wouldn’t say no to some armored reinforcements. Especially as it appears the 47th Brigade has donated its few surviving Leopard 2A6s to the 21st Brigade, holding positions around Kreminna to the north.

Most of Ukraine’s Leopard 1A5s appear to belong to the newly reorganized 5th Tank Brigade, which apparently has been fitting out in Kryvyi Rih in southern Ukraine. There are no clear indications where the 5th Brigade might deploy, once its hundred or so tanks and their crews all are ready.

But the weary, bloodied brigades in Avdiivka surely would welcome a fresh brigade with a hundred fresh tanks. Especially if those tanks have the best winter camouflage and the most protective reactive armor.