Following the Ramstein Air Base meeting on February 12, 2025, the United Kingdom announced that it would provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with an aid package by the spring of 2025, which would include 50 armored vehicles, including T-72 tanks.
At this point, i.e., with the T-72, a special intrigue arises. The issue is not only the possible number of vehicles, but also where the British could source these tanks to help the Ukrainian army, and who in Europe might still possess such Soviet-style main battle tanks.
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To begin with, it should be noted that there is no evidence in public sources that the UK has previously purchased T-72s in significant quantities for its needs. The Bovington Tank Museum has only two tanks of this type on display.
It should also be noted that the joint initiative of the United States and the Netherlands to restore and modernize 90 T-72EA tanks at the facilities of the Czech Excalibur Army is a separate story in which the British are not involved. In addition, following the recent Ramstein meeting, news emerged that the last of the 90 envisioned T-72EA tanks would be delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the near future.
Therefore, it can be assumed that a certain number of T-72s for Ukraine may have been found in the stockpiles of the Czech Excalibur Army company or in the storage facilities of other Eastern European countries, such as Romania.
According to The Military Balance 2024, at the beginning of last year, the number of available T-72 tanks and operating countries in Europe was extremely limited, and the ability to share Warsaw Pact tanks was equally constrained.
For instance, according to The Military Balance, Poland currently has no T-72s at all, Bulgaria has approximately 90 T-72M1/M2s (technical condition is unclear), the Czech Republic has 30 T-72M4 CZs (but this country has already given 62 of its tanks to Ukraine and restored 136 T-72AE tanks at its facilities), Hungary has 44 T-72s, while Slovakia has 30 T-72Ms (but these two countries do not provide military assistance to Ukraine).
Against this background, a hypothesis arises that the British could have sourced the T-72s for the new aid package to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from depots somewhere in Eastern Europe.
According to some reports, as of February 2022, Romania had up to 30 T-72s in storage, which were decommissioned in the 2000s. The current status of these vehicles is unclear, so we should not rule out the possibility that these tanks could still be used to support Ukraine's defense.
Earlier, Defense Express reported that the mysterious British Gravehawk for Ukraine did not look like everyone had expected.
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