MOSCOW. July 13 (Interfax) -As many as 311 Ukrainian tanks, of which foreign-made Leopards accounted for at least one-third, have been destroyed since June 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"In the period since June 4 alone, 311 [tanks] have been destroyed, a major part of which, I guess at least 1/3, were made in the West, including Leopards," Putin said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin on Rossiya-24 (VGTRK).
"I can tell you that Ukrainian service members often refuse to even get into these tanks. Why? Because they are a high-priority target for our guys and end up being destroyed first on the battlefield. And this is an unpleasant circumstance, which, generally speaking, prevents the use of them," he said.