PT-91 polacos para Ucrania

Ukraine to get PT-91 tanks from Poland

By Dylan Malyasov



Photo by Matthew DeVirgilio

Ukraine is set to receive PT-91 Twardy main battle tanks from Poland to help the country repel Russia’s attack.

Poland will deliver 60 tanks, including PT-91 Twardy, to Ukraine, according to the head of the Ukrainian presidential Office Andrii Yermak.

The tanks will be delivered on top of the fourteen German-built Leopard 2 tanks that Warsaw pledged to Ukraine on Jan. 11, the transfer of which was only recently officially approved by Berlin.

In an interview with Canadian television channel CTV news, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that 30 of the tanks would be PT-91 Twardy models, with the remainder understood to be upgraded Soviet-built T-72 tanks.

The PT-91 is a modernized version of the T-72 developed domestically in Poland, which is said to have had about 230 of them. It is a further development by the Zaklady Mechaniczne Bumar-Labedy SA of the Russian-made T-72M1 tank which has been produced under license in Poland for many years.

The PT-91 has a more powerful engine, compared with the T-72. It is fitted with the S-12U diesel engine, developing 850 horsepower. There was also developed an S-1000 turbocharged diesel engine, developing 1 000 horsepower.