Ukraine's Unseen Army: The mechanics who keep the tanks rolling

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

southern Ukraine, searching. It screeched to a halt, and three men unloaded heavy equipment and disappeared into the undergrowth. What they were looking for, dug in and hidden under the trees, were three hulking British-made armored vehicles known as Mastiffs.

Supplied to the Ukrainian army for its attempt to retake Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine, the Mastiffs were in need of a service. «They call us the dog handlers,» Serhii Ivanov, the leader of the maintenance team, joked, referring to a nickname that came about because many of the armored vehicles they service were named after breeds of dogs: Mastiffs, Huskies, Wolfhounds. Behind the thousands of Ukrainian troops assembled along the 100-mile front line for the counteroffensive is a small army of mechanics, engineers and weapon technicians responsible for keeping Ukraine's growing fleet of Western-made tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment in working order.

They work in forest camps or in disused buildings a few miles from the front line, or as mobile breakdown teams, taking their services to military units where they are deployed to avoid towing equipment on long journeys back to base or even to factories abroad. «Vehicles are needed at the front now, and this way allows us to get them back quickly to the front line,» said Maj. Valerii Shershen, head of communications at the Ukrainian logistics command.

Quoting Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, he added, «Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.» Not unlike combat medics who risk their lives daily to bring out the wounded, mechanics have been venturing onto the battlefield, navigating minefields and shell fire, to retrieve and repair broken