Tug-of-war: Ukraine celebrates its tank-towing farmers

TOWED away gleefully as if it were parked illegally, the Soviet-era armoured personnel carrier doesn’t look so intimidating as it is paraded before the delighted Ukrainians gathered to celebrate its seizure.

Theoretically, the 1970s MT-LB belongs to the Russian forces – but they abandoned it in Ukraine’s north-east, around 30 km from the warring neighbours’ shared border.

It was found by tractor driver Vitaliy Denysenko, who grins, a mischievous twinkle in his eye, as he pulls his prize around a field in the village of Mala Rogan, where it was left during a hasty withdrawal at the end of March.