Recently an interview was published with tankers from Ukraine's 141st Separate Mechanized Brigade who are fighting in an M-84 tank delivered by Croatia. This is the first public appearance of this combat vehicle in Ukraine.
Talk of transferring M-84 tanks to Ukraine first surfaced in October 2024. At that time, the plan was to send 30 tanks together with 30 M-80A IFVs. In return, Croatia wanted to receive 50 modern Leopard 2A8 tanks.
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Now the M-84s are in Ukraine, but Croatia still has not received Leopard 2A8s. Previously Croatia received Leopard 2A4s from Germany, reportedly designated locally as Leopard 2A4HRV.
From the interview it appears the M-84s have been operational on the battlefield in Ukraine for some time. It's also noticeable that they were fitted with anti-drone protection and an electronic warfare system, work that was likely carried out in Ukraine, which would have taken additional time.
Additionally, the M-84s in Ukraine are equipped with explosive reactive armor that they did not have while in Croatia. Most likely all these added protections were installed outside Croatia. That suggests the M-84s were transferred some time ago but only publicly appeared now.
It's worth recalling that in December 2024 a trainload of M-84 tanks was spotted in Europe reportedly heading to Germany. If that was the case, it is quite possible that some upgrade work on the M-84s was done there or in another European country before they were sent to Ukraine.
Notably, the M-84s arrived in the modernized M-84A4 Snajper variant. Compared to the baseline model, this version features a laser warning system, an A10XMB meteorological sensor, and an improved fire-control system with a modern laser rangefinder.
You can see evidence of this in a frame from the video showing the folded laser warning array. It was likely folded because under the vehicle's protective grill it would be ineffective — the grill obstructs the sensors' view and prevents them from functioning.
Also, because the turret machine gun was unusable, it was removed. The left-side infrared searchlight was also taken off to make room for additional explosive reactive armor, strengthening the tanks protection.
Overall, the M-84 is a Yugoslav modernization of the T-72M1. Its armor is broadly similar, but the build quality and fire-control system were a step above the Soviet originals. Defense Expresscovered the differences between the baseline M-84 and the T-72M1in a separate article.
Croatia fields 74 M-84 tanks, and 30 of them were to be delivered to Ukraine. That number roughly equals one tank battalion.
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