New Italian Vehicle Shipments For Ukraine

Italian aid to Ukraine has been an under-reported aspect of 2025 as armored personnel carriers have trickled into Ukraine throughout the year. With APCs being a critical shortage that has been poorly addressed by foreign partners, any delivery of armored transports for infantry is sorely needed.

As the year draws to a close, additional tracked APCs from Italy are bound for Ukrainian service, despite limited quantities. Currently, there are no VCC losses according to Oryx. This suggests a limited delivery size, but there is a strong possibility that there may be VCC-2s being misidentified as M113s due to visual similarities.

The relatively more modern VCC-2s have been in service with the 1st Assault Regiment, 58th Motorized Brigade, Donetsk Rifle Battalion, and the Lyut Police Assault Brigade starting in June 2024, with further sightings in early 2025. 

The VCC-1 was first seen in transport in September and then again on the first of October 2025. Militaryland Contributor Giubbi researched, identified, and geolocated the train where there were at least 34 VCC-1s amidst other vehicles in Italy, then Hungary, with the destination presumed to be Ukraine. A month later, it was spotted in service with the 129th Heavy Mechanized Brigade in a Facebook post of the vehicle undergoing modifications to improve its survivability in the drone-saturated warzone through the additions of struts likely to support drone nets or bar armor. 

VCC-1 is easy to identify due to the shape of the rear third of the hull. Some of the vehicles seen in transport sport additional addon composite protection similar to that of the already in service M113G4DK, the one spotted with the 129th Heavy Mechanized Brigade, however, seems to be one of the vehicles lacking this addon armor package.

A better version of M113

The VCC-1 is a domestically produced and upgraded M113 derivative made in Italy, based on improving the M113A1 for additional protection, among other modifications. 

In the context of Ukraine, the VCC-1 is not noticeably superior to the M113s currently in service; they are older hulls, which calls into question their reliability, but they are well integrated into an existing logistics network.

Ukrainian servicemen already have extensive experience with operating, maintaining, and repairing the vehicle and its variants. This experience should carry over onto the VCCs; however, the deliveries will not make up for the bulk of M113 losses. Despite this, the deliveries should ensure that units that have benefited from tracked armored vehicles will continue to do so in the near future.