Last year Bulgaria promised Ukraine one hundred BTR-60PBs. Now all of these wheeled armoured personnel carriers and a bunch of other equipment have been transferred. The BTR-60 is an old armoured vehicle, but it can still be useful. But why are some of the BTR-60s that Bulgaria is sending blue?
BTR-60 is an old armoured personnel carrier, but it can still be extremely useful. Image credit: Wikimedia
The BTR-60 is an old machine. There is no other way of putting it. Russia and many former Soviet countries are still using 8×8 armoured personnel carriers and the BTR-60 was the first one in that line. It entered service in 1959. At that time the memories of the Second World War were still fresh. And the ones that Bulgaria gave to Ukraine are not much younger either.
Bulgaria had 100 BTR-60PB in storage and pledged them to Ukraine. The truth of the matter was that these machines were sitting unused and were unlikely to ever be used again. Bulgaria still has 20 BTR-60s in active service, but they have been modernized to the BTR-60PB-MD1 standard.
Modernization of the rest was not even planned, because they are old and expensive to maintain. Bulgaria is a member of NATO and hanging onto that old machinery is pointless. However, for Ukraine, these BTR-60s will be very useful. Some of them will be quickly restored and modernized, some, likely, will become donors of spare parts. The BTR-60 is amphibious, can carry up to 14 troops (along a crew of 3) and can serve in many different roles, including medical evacuation.
BTR-60’s, among other equipment such as BRDM-2, from Bulgaria heading to Ukraine. The transfer has already been completed by now. pic.twitter.com/d4YsSFrr2k
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) March 16, 2024
People are happy to see armoured equipment being brought to Ukraine. But many have noticed that some of the BTR-60s that Bulgaria gave to Ukraine were painted blue. That is not a great camouflage colour.
That is hardly a mystery though. The Gendarmerie of Bulgaria has used BTR-60s before and they were painted blue. The Gendarmerie in Bulgaria is a militarised special police force, conducting counterterrorism operations. They did crowd control, dealt with mass protests, etc. And because in that role the BTR-60 doesn’t need to be camouflage, it was painted bright blue and had big Gendarmerie signs.
The colour really doesn’t matter though. All of them, including the green ones, will be repainted during the refurbishment process. And yes, they are old, weak, slow, abandoned for over a decade. But these will soon become tools for Ukraine to try and withstand the war that was unleashed upon it by Russia.
Bulgaria also sent a bunch of BRDM-2, a handful of 2S1 Gvozdika howitzers and some other weapons and ammunition. Bulgaria has been supplying weapons and ammo to Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, although some of the military aid was not discussed publicly. Due to its history, Bulgaria had a large number of different soviet systems that Ukrainians are familiar with.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: NOELReports Twitter, Wikipedia