A world-renowned expert offers a focused, illustrated account of how Russian and Ukrainian armour fought during the crucial year of 2022, prior to the arrival of Western tanks.

The invasion of Ukraine has seen full-scale mechanized warfare return to Europe. While Western armour and training has been a major part of Ukraine’s army since 2023, in the first year of the war both the Russian invaders and the Ukrainians fought using their existing mechanized armies, in the most devastating and high-stakes war in decades. That year, Moscow’s latest tanks (bar the still undeployable T-14 Armata) found themselves engaging Ukraine’s modernized and customized Soviet-era tank fleet.

World-renowned Russia specialist Mark Galeotti draws on rare Russian and Ukrainian sources to present a definitive account of the Russian and Ukrainian tanks that fought that year, before the first Western tanks arrived. He explores the rival tank armies, how they were used, and the ways they were modified in response to the emerging challenges of the war, and presents the reader with ORBATs and data on deployments new to the English-speaking world.

As the war in Ukraine revolutionizes our understanding of modern warfare, this book offers an expert assessment of how Ukrainian tanks fought the Russians to a standstill in 2022, and how the lessons learned affected the course of the war.