From Soviet truck-mounted workshops to pickup-truck “flying workshops”: here is how frontline equipment repair has evolved over the years of full-scale war.
Mykhailo, a mechanic with a mobile repair group of the 14th Brigade, described working under fire as the hardest part: he says you have to “fix the vehicle, listen to what is flying and where, and keep an eye on the sky for drones — all at the same time.”
This is the daily routine of repair crews. For most damaged vehicles, a frontline repair follows a set of stages: reach the vehicle, extract it, assess the damage, find the part, and fit it. Every link in that chain depends on people working under drones.
What “frontline repair” looks like
In July 2026, a Russian crew abandoned a fully operational T-72 after the tank ran out of fuel. According to a report from the 7th Corps of the Air Assault Forces, the tank fell into the hands of the 81st Brigade without a single shot being fired. It was evacuated, refueled, and handed over to a repair unit, where it was serviced, fitted with anti-drone protection, and given additional armor. It is now fighting on the Sloviansk axis against its former owners.
This is one of those rare cases where everything worked out: the tank was intact, it could be reached, and a repair unit happened to be nearby. Unfortunately, in kill-zone conditions such luck rarely smiles on the defenders. Nonetheless, every day teams of specialists drive into dangerous areas to assess and restore equipment that may still be salvageable.
Brigades have their own repair units. At the next level up are repair regiments. If those cannot cope — for example, due to a lack of conditions or equipment — factories are brought in.
The first link in the repair chain is a mobile group that handles what can be done in the open: changing a wheel, basic running-gear repairs, welding a part. Complex electronics, drones, electronic warfare systems, and repeaters are usually removed from the vehicle and taken to the rear, because diagnostics and controlled conditions are required.
A soldier of the 47th Mechanized Brigade with the call sign PhysEd said that most vehicles are lost to enemy strikes rather than to wear. A spokesman for the “Khartiya” Brigade added: some vehicles at the front have been fighting since 2022–2023, while others do not survive their very first combat mission.
“Emergency response” for equipment
In the autumn of 2022, Ukroboronprom reported that its field teams were restoring 90–95% of equipment directly on the line of contact or in the “grey zone.” They follow a single algorithm: first, a conversation with the crew before setting out, so that spare parts can be prepared in advance; then the fastest possible on-site diagnosis; then heavily damaged equipment is towed to a safe location. The record for one three-person team was seven vehicles restored in a single day.
Ten days living in a workshop on wheels
In 2023, the repair group of the 14th Mechanized Brigade was operating in Kharkiv Oblast. Its commander, Mykhailo, had served in the border troops before the invasion. He compared military equipment to agricultural machinery, saying: “Tractors are almost no different from military vehicles.”
The group worked out of a vehicle with an enclosed cargo body that housed both tools and spare parts. During multi-day repairs, it became the mechanics’ home. On one occasion, for example, they were stuck for almost a week and a half next to a single MT-LB armored tractor, replacing cylinder heads and gaskets and re-tracking the vehicle’s tracks in field conditions.
“The vehicle has a crane boom fitted, so we can remove an engine anywhere. All the necessary wrenches are always on us,” Mykhailo explained.
Mechanic Mykola, a former fitter, said that Soviet equipment breaks down more often because it has already outlived its service life. The group also strips destroyed Russian equipment for spare parts and repairs captured vehicles. For example, specialists in the 14th Brigade replaced the engine and transmission of a captured T-72BM, repaired its gun, and welded on additional anti-cumulative armor.
A container instead of a ZiL
A quarter of a century before this war, the Soviet army relied on mobile workshops such as the PARM-3M, which were deployed using several vehicles and equipped with heavy machinery. That approach largely no longer works today: the equipment designed for Urals and KamAZes does not fit IVECO or MAN vehicles.
Colonel Yaroslav Lysenko, commander of the 43rd Artillery Brigade, described the difference. In his words, a welding machine weighing around 300 kilograms used to require seven soldiers to operate. Now there are compact modern machines that a single person can handle.
Changes are therefore being introduced literally “on the fly.” Together with the charitable organization “Reaktyvna Poshta,” the brigade developed a workshop based on a 20-foot container. It houses a welding unit, a lathe, a sandblaster, an overhead crane, and a 9-tonne crane manipulator. According to the brigade commander, the brigade now carries out around 90% of repairs independently, with the exception of barrel replacements and major engine and self-propelled gun gearbox overhauls. The project cost 110,000 euros, and the brigade’s own tire-fitting capability, by the commander’s estimate, paid for itself five times over in two years.
The container offers a logistical advantage: a tractor unit drops it at a location and drives away, rather than remaining tied to a truck as Soviet-era workshops were. The “Sprava Hromad” foundation has produced more than 20 such complexes at 1.8 million hryvnias each and transferred 103 vehicles on Leyland DAF chassis to the military, each costing from 1 million hryvnias.
The pickup “flying workshop”
Frontline repair begins with the question of whether it is even possible to reach the damaged equipment. In the first months of the full-scale invasion, recovery vehicles drove almost all the way to the positions themselves. Today, the mass use of FPV drones has turned a strip up to 20 kilometers wide from the front line into a strike zone.
That is why the company LOCKER builds workshops on pickups: a reinforced frame, a utility body, a small tire-fitting stand, a generator, a compressor, a welding machine, and a 500 kg crane boom. A company representative called it a “flying workshop” vehicle — easy to drive in, get the job done, and disappear quickly. The price is around 916,000 hryvnias.
Can Western equipment be repaired in the field?
Even before the delivery of Abrams and Leopard tanks, the United States and Europe doubted that Ukraine would be able to maintain them. NBC News reported that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley had advised against sending Abrams precisely because of the lengthy training required for crews and repair personnel. Initially, setting up the nearest repair hub in Poland was considered, but it later became clear that deploying one in Ukraine would be faster and cheaper.
In practice, Western equipment turned out to be, in the words of Ukrainians, “too heavy and complex to repair.” As a result, Ukrainian defenders prefer domestically produced vehicles with modular armor. NATO has taken note: researchers from the alliance are advising manufacturers to make ease of repair a primary requirement and to abandon “whims” such as rubber tracks.
“Doctors” for robots
By 20 August 2026, Ukrainian ground robots had completed more than 100,000 combat missions. In the most robotized battalions, UGVs account for up to 90 percent of frontline resupply.
At the same time, UGVs are among the primary targets of enemy attacks. It is therefore no surprise that units have begun establishing what might be called “service stations for robots.” For example, in the technical workshop of the 22nd Brigade’s unmanned ground systems company, UGVs return after every mission for inspection, servicing, and repair. Repair personnel incorporate lessons from combat sorties, adding protection and improving communications.
“Hands” are there — parts are not
The longest delays in repair are caused by a shortage of spare parts — especially for Western equipment. Waiting months is never an option, so solutions have to be found.
Major Ihor Symуtin of the Logistics Forces said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have localized the production of rubber and technical products, silent blocks, armored windshields, radiators, and the repair of engines and automatic transmissions. The system operates on two levels: brigade workshops handle minor repairs, while serious damage goes to repair centers of the Logistics Forces Command.
Small parts are printed. Frontline printer farms produce mounts, protective housings, and adapters, while FPV housings, antenna mounts, and battery holders are reworked based on frontline feedback and tested within hours.
Captured equipment has also become a source of spare parts. The repair battalion of the 3rd Tank Brigade maintained a “bank” of parts stripped from Russian vehicles. Serviceable assemblies and components were used to restore Ukrainian equipment when the required parts were not available through standard supply channels.
There is no shortage of examples of heroism, resilience, and ingenuity among Ukrainian repair crews. It is worth noting that these processes involve not only the brigades’ organic specialists but also civilian technicians. Thanks to Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 334 of 16 March 2026, the Ministry of Defense gained the ability to designate as critically important enterprises that fulfill contracts for the repair and maintenance of weapons and equipment. Repair personnel have finally become a distinct strategic category — not merely the “rear” of the war.
