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The Russian military is rapidly replenishing the trophies of NATO equipment amid their advance on the Ukrainian frontlines. The German Marder 1A3 infantry fighting vehicle was recently added to the list of Russian trophies.
Germany supplied the AFU with the obsolete version of the Marder 1A3 vehicles, adopted by the Bundeswehr in 1989. The Germans preferred to keep the more modern versions for themselves.
On March 24, the fighters of the Russian 1st Slavic Brigade showed the first Marder 1A3 they captured in the Avdeevka region. It was reportedly captured almost undamaged.
On March 14, the first photos of a Marder 1As lost by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) lost near Orlovka were shared online. The Ukrainian military failed to evacuate the damaged vehicle from the battlefield. This is likely another vehicle lost by Ukrainian forces. It is not clear if the vehicle could be repaired and if the Russian side decided to take it to the rear or to abandon it in the fields.
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The Ukrainian units cannot save the precious NATO equipment. Suffering from the lack of the Soviet-made equipment, the AFU are forced to throw the foreign vehicles, which they carefully guarder in the rear, into heavy battles in an attempt to slow down Russian advance.
German Marder infantry fighting vehicles entered service with the 82nd separate airborne assault brigade of the AFU. The brigade is also armed with American Stryker armored personnel carriers and British Challenger 2 tanks. The unit had previously suffered heavy losses during the failed counter-offensive in the Zaporozhye direction. Now, the unit is defending Ukrainian positions in the villages west of Avdeevka, together with the 47th separate mechanized brigade of the AFU, which was also defeated in Zaporozhie, then it was armed with the Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. Both of the units have already lost precious tanks and vehicles from NATO in battles in Avdeevka,
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