Ukrainian paratroopers began using French-made VAB wheeled armored personnel carriers.

The Command of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces reported about this.

The military released a video featuring servicemen talking about their experience in operating these APCs.

VAB armored personnel carriers have become another type of military equipment that Ukraine’s international partners have provided to combat Russia’s full-scale armed aggression.

“The paratroopers liked the VAB immediately, because everything in it is thought out to the smallest detail for the safety and comfort of the crew,” the statement reads.

The servicemen emphasize that with such equipment they are confidently accelerating the liberation of the south of Ukraine from the Russian invaders.

The soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that the French armored vehicle is compact and quite spacious inside, and provides comfortable conditions for landing. Such APCs are designed to solve the widest range of tasks both in reconnaissance and on the battlefield.

The vehicles are used to move or evacuate personnel, transport weapons, ammunition or medicines. The military have armed the VAB armored personnel carrier with a 12.7-mm M2 Browning machine gun.

The VAB (Véhicule de l’Avant Blindé – “Armoured Vanguard Vehicle”) is a French armored personnel carrier and support vehicle developed by the French manufacturers Renault and Saviem. Serial production has been ongoing since the mid-70s. There are several configurations of VAB vehicles – for command, reconnaissance, and sanitary purposes.

The armored personnel carrier has a welded body, in the front part of which there is a control compartment, a seat for the mechanic-driver is on the left, and to the right of him the commander is seated. The motor-transmission compartment is located behind the control compartment, and the landing compartment is in the aft part of the armored hull of the armored personnel carrier. Boarding and disembarking of personnel are carried out through two armored doors.

Most often, the vehicle is armed with a 12.7 mm machine gun for infantry vehicles or a 7.62 mm machine gun on the roof for other models. Also, the VAB can be equipped with a turret with a 20 or 25 × 137 mm machine gun.

Open data suggests that 5,000 of these vehicles were produced, and 4,000 of them are in service of the French army. VAB is also in service with 15 other countries.