Ukrainian Armed Forces received cool armored vehicles from a country with a small army
American-made MaxxPro armored vehicles are actively used by the Ukrainian Defense Forces on the battlefield
Researchers of the Oryx portal, who, in addition to destroyed, damaged and trophy equipment on the battlefield, also record defense aid provided to the Ukrainian Defense Forces by Ukraine’s allies, have updated the list of weapons and military equipment received by Ukraine from Albania.
This is a rather extraordinary event, as until now the list looked like this: two Mercedes-Benz L 508D ambulances, as well as ammunition – 7.62 mm bullets for small arms (February-March 2022), and 60 mm mortar shells Type 63 (delivered by May 2022).
Now this list has been supplemented with 82-mm mortar shells and 22 International M1224 MaxxPro armored vehicles, according to the Oryx portal, so this is the first time Albania has transferred armored vehicles to Ukraine.
How significant this assistance is can be judged by the Military Balance directory, which states that as of 2022, the Albanian army had only 40 such armored vehicles in service.
As for how these vehicles ended up in the Albanian army, the answer to this question can be found in open sources – the vehicles were supplied to the country by the United States under the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program and in accordance with the 2015 US-Albanian agreement.
Thus, Albania received the first three MaxxPros under the agreement in 2017, while two years later, in 2019, a large-scale batch of 37 units was officially handed over.
The International M1224 MaxxPro armored vehicles are already well known to the Ukrainian Defense Forces – today our army has hundreds of these vehicles in service and they are actively used on the front line.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have praised this armored vehicle, noting its reliability, ease of operation and speed. One of the soldiers with the pseudonym “Askal” spoke about his positive impressions of the vehicle. In a comment to ArmyInform, he emphasized the vehicle’s powerful protection, which “never failed”, even though there were “scars” on the vehicle. These vehicles are used by the military to carry out combat missions directly on the front lines – in assault operations, as well as to evacuate the wounded from the battlefield.
