- Ukrainian mechanics are working on the front lines to fix and convert captured vehicles rapidly.
- One mechanic told The New York Times that Russian vehicles had been vital in the counteroffensive.
Ukraine's counteroffensive would fall apart without all the Russian vehicles it has captured, a frontline mechanic told The New York Times in a report published Tuesday.
The mechanic — who uses the call sign "Hammer" — told The Times that troops fighting on the front lines of southern Ukraine had been making use of captured weapons and armor out of necessity to survive.
"Without the Russian captured vehicles, we would not manage to keep going," he told The Times.
Hammer is the head of weapons and maintenance for the 35th Marine Brigade. He said the brigade captured more than 20 Russian vehicles in the past six weeks of Ukraine's counteroffensive.
Among the items recovered were Russia's prized T-72 tanks and eight multi-purpose fighting vehicles, which the brigade had never had before, Hammer said.
"A few days and the vehicle is back on the battlefield," he said. "In this way, they become indestructible."
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than 17 months ago, Kyiv has recovered more than 800 artillery systems and 300 tanks and put them back to use on the battlefield, Deutsche Welle reported last week.
"Russia is competing with Western countries to supply weapons to Ukraine," Col. Oleksandr Saruba, who works for a Ukrainian military center that receives and analyzes captured weaponry, told the outlet.
However, the military analyst Michael Kofman said in March that despite the constant work of Ukrainian repair shops, some captured vehicles were designed only for Russian forces, which meant Ukraine might get limited use out of them.
Ukrainians "don't have the parts that keep a lot of these running," Kofman said at a Carnegie Endowment event at the time.
"So, on paper, you may capture a lot of vehicles, but you don't have the engines, you don't have the transmissions, you don't have the parts to keep them going," he added.