The 47th Mechanized Brigade captured a Russian Т-72B3 tank in the Zaporizhzhia region during the offensive.

Valeriy Markus, Chief Sergeant of the 47th Brigade, released the video with this tank.

The brigade’s soldiers managed to capture the Russian Т-72B3 mod. 2016 tank. Judging by the appearance of the combat vehicle, it has no noticeable damage, and the crew simply left this equipment.

The author of the video does not name the place of capture of the Russian combat vehicle, but it is reported that the 47th Brigade carried out a number of offensive actions in the direction of the village of Robotine, Zaporizhzhia region.

The captured tank is a quite common vehicle in the Russian military. According to Oryx analysts, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian military has managed to destroy or capture 218 tanks of this type.

A week earlier, the Ukrainian military defeated several Russian Т-72B3 tanks in the same direction during the failed attempt of the invaders to regain the captured positions. As a result of the Ukrainian fire, the Russians lost three tanks, and three more tanks retreated.

Т-72B3 mod. 2016

Т-72B3 mod. 2016 is the main battle tank of the Russian Federation and one of the latest modernizations of the Soviet Т-72B tank. It has a number of improvements, including increased protection, firepower, and mobility.

The firepower of the combat vehicle has increased due to new fire control system elements, such as the gunner’s sights with a thermal imager, a night vision device of the tank commander, and a wind sensor. The vehicle also received an adapted autoloader to use the elongated APFSDS rounds.

The tank’s protection is improved by the new set of built-in Relikt explosive reactive armor with wide overlapping areas of the main armor in the front and side projections. Relikt ERA is capable of counteracting HEAT and APFSDS rounds.

The tank’s maneuverability is improved by installing a more powerful V-92S2F (1,130 hp) diesel engine instead of a V-84-1 (840 hp). The tank also received new tracks with oblique hinges borrowed from Soviet Т-80.

The captured tank can be easily integrated into the Ukrainian tank unit structure, as it is in many aspects identical to the Soviet Т-72 that is in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The tank is equipped with the same 125mm gun and 12.7mm and 7.62mm machine guns as Ukrainian tanks, so there should be no shortage of ammunition for it. However, a rather specific V-92S2F engine might be a problem, as the replacement for it can only be found in other Russian tanks of the same model.