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.
Furthermore, foreign-made tanks "burn just the same as all others," Putin said. "[They burn] even better than others, than Soviet-made famous T-72 [tanks]," he said.