<p >On June 8 the Russian Army for the first time advanced into the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, with the 90th Tank Division operating under Battlegroup Centre having spearheaded the assault over the western border of the Donetsk region to reach the border with Dnipropetrovsk, before continuing to advance west. The advance follows significant breakthroughs by Russian Army units on the frontlines in the&nbsp;northern Sumy region and in Donetsk. The advance into Dnipropetrovsk is expected to place considerable additional pressure on the Ukrainian Army’s frontline positions, loosing the hold on the town of Pokrovsk which has been under a sustained Russian assault for months. The strategic location of Dnipropetrovsk, which is bordered by the sharply contested and largely Russian held regions of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, makes its potential fall to Russian Army advances a turning point in the conflict. The sparsely populated region remains an important mining and logistics centre.</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/08/article_684590dd247e92_86461487.png" title="T-72B3M on the Frontlines with 2022 Standard Armour and Arena-M System"></p><p >The 90th Tank Division is split between three tank regiments and single motorised infantry regiment, and deploys an estimated 300 T-72 tanks, the large majority of which are modernised to the T-72B3 standard, supported by BMP-2 and BTR-82 fighting vehicles and a number of self-propelled howitzers. The T-72 has formed the backbone of the Russian Army’s armoured units since the start of full scale hostilities in February 2022, despite the decision to <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/why-russia-t62m-to-ukraine-local-force" >bring older T-62</a> and <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/t80-repel-ukrainian-assault-donetsk" >newer but higher maintenance T-80</a> tanks back into service, and efforts to expand production of the <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russian-army-rt90m-active-protection" >new T-90M tank</a>. T-72s have continued to be modernised to build on the standard capabilities of the T-72B3 variant, with the latest variant <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russia-new-enhanced-t72-features" target="_blank">seen from late 2022</a> having an armour configuration closely based on that of the T-90M. Modernised T-72s were in March <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/new-enhanced-russian-t72-first-active-protection-system-ukrainian-frontlines" >seen for the first time&nbsp;</a>integrating the new Arena-M active protection system, as the class has continued to be incrementally enhanced.&nbsp;Although the T-72 was fielded in limited numbers by the Ukrainian Army in 2022, the tanks have come to also <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-10-times-more-t72s-a-year" target="_blank">form the backbone </a>of its fleet, both as large stockpiles have been brought out of storage, and as considerable numbers previously exported to Eastern European Warsaw Pact states by the Soviet Union are <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-receives-large-batch-t72-tanks-poland" target="_blank">donated to Ukraine</a>.&nbsp;</p>
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