Preparations have been completed in Moscow for the upcoming Victory Day celebrations, where several pieces of military equipment looted by Russian forces after being donated to Ukraine by the United States and its NATO allies will be displayed. The exhibition will be opened to visitors next week.
According to videos shared on social media on Saturday, a German-made Leopard 2 tank entered Victory Park, which houses museums of the 1812 and 1945 war victories. The tank was captured relatively unscathed near Avgyeyevka last month, although the tracks had to be detonated with explosives to tow it from the battlefield. It was then patched together and shipped to Moscow for the show.
Another piece brought to Victory Park on Saturday was a Soviet-designed T-72 main battle tank. Ukraine lost hundreds of these during the ongoing conflict with Russia, and its Western supporters “lost the thread” of how many were donated to compensate for Kiev’s battlefield losses, so there is no exact number of how many could have remained.
In the past week, the Moscow collection has been strengthened with an American-made M113 armored personnel carrier and a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, as well as a German-made Marder 1A3. Other trophies include a YPR-765, the Dutch modification of the M113, and a Turkish Kirpi MRAP.
A Ukrainian-made Azovec armored vehicle was also located in the complex. Engineers sympathetic to the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment made it in 2015 by converting a Soviet-era T-64 tank, but it mysteriously disappeared from the factory and was never seen on the battlefield. Russian forces eventually found him buried at the battalion’s base near Mariupol.
A total of 30 armored vehicles from 12 countries will be on display when the exhibition officially opens on May 1, including weapons manufactured or supplied by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Austria and Australia.
The trophies will be on display throughout the month as the country celebrates Victory Day on May 9, the anniversary of the World War II victory over Nazi Germany. After that, some of the exhibition pieces will presumably go to the Kubinka Tank Museum in Patriot Park near Moscow.
