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Tanks to retain key role in future, if there is no nuclear war — Russian defense official

Mikhail Osyko noted that the land troops' striking force could not be imagined without tanks today

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. Tanks will keep their status of a major striking force of the land troops, if there is no nuclear war, member of the board of Russia’s Military-Industrial Commission Mikhail Osyko told TASS in the run-up to the Army-2021 international military-technical forum on Thursday.

"We all hope that a nuclear war will never break out. We believe in this. I think that in these conditions tanks will continue to be a major striking force of the land troops," the defense official said.

Tanks are a formidable combat unit and the land troops' striking force cannot be imagined without them today, Osyko stressed.

"Perhaps, there will be no longer massive tank battles similar to the Prokhorovka engagement during the [1941-1945] Great Patriotic War [of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany]," he added.

The Battle of Prokhorovka was the largest tank engagement between the Soviet forces and Nazi troops. It took place near the village of Prokhorovka on July 12, 1943 between the Soviet and German forces that involved up to 1,200 tanks and self-propelled guns from both sides. In this Battle, the Soviet troops routed the German’s most powerful strike force and the enemy’s basic forces had to switch to the defensive.

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