War in Ukraine Volume 4: Main Battle Tanks of Russia and Ukraine, 2014-2023: Soviet Legacy and Post-Soviet Russian MBTs

The two largest heirs to the massive Soviet tank force that faced NATO during the Cold War – Russia and Ukraine – have been fighting one another since 2014 in what has now become the largest war in Europe since 1945. 

Volume 4 of the War in Ukraine series examines the common legacy of Soviet main battle tanks (MBTs) inherited by both sides in this conflict and the evolution of three models in a relatively short space of time with nominally similar characteristics: the T-64, T-72, and T-80. Drawing upon Russian and Ukrainian source material not often examined in the West, this book looks into the design history of these models and their relative strengths and weaknesses, and challenges a number of common myths circulating about these MBTs from the days of the Cold War up to the present. This book then goes on to examine the evolution of these models in Russian service in the post-Soviet era, including the T-90, and Russian attempts to upgrade their MBT technologies. 

This volume, extensively illustrated with full colour images, is essential reading for the reader interested in late Soviet, and post-Soviet Russian MBT design, and the forces employed in the current war in Ukraine. The full history of the Russo– Ukrainian War remains to be written, but this book aims to at least give a background and a glimpse into one particular aspect of the war, as well as the role the MBT has played in the largest war of the twenty-first century so far. 

Volume 5 will continue the story of Post-Soviet Ukrainian MBT development and the use of MBTs by both sides in the current war.