Mystery as Russian T-90 Tank Turns Up at Louisiana Gas Station

Mystery surrounds a Russian T-90A battle tank that spent two days in a parking lot in Roanoke, Louisiana.

The tank, which may have been captured in Ukraine, arrived outside Peto's Travel Center and Casino late on Tuesday and remained there until Thursday evening, according to the center manager.

Photos of the tank were posted on Reddit by a user called Mutantlight and then spread across the internet. One open-source intelligence (OSINT) expert identified it as having been recovered by Ukrainian forces near Kherson in September 2022 after having been abandoned by its crew.

Speaking to Newsweek Cody Sellers, manager of the travel center and casino, said the tank arrived on Tuesday evening on the back of a transporter and was then left for two days before being removed at around 8 p.m. CDT on Thursday.

Sellers said the men who collected the tank were not military, describing them as "contractors" and calling the vehicles they used "nothing fancy."

Valerie Mott, assistant manager of the travel center and casino, discussed the tank's arrival on military-focused website The War Zone.

She said a group turned up with the tank on Tuesday, then asked to leave it on site as "the transmission went out on the truck that was hauling this big old trailer."

While the men went to pick up a replacement from Houston, the tank remained in the parking lot, which has "guards 24 hours a day."

The Department of Defense said they had no information on what the tank was doing in Louisiana.

Writing for The War Zone, defense expert Howard Altman speculated the tank may "be intended for some sort of display," though he added: "If it was not imported by the military, exactly how it made it from Ukraine to Peto's parking lot is quite puzzling."

According to one OSINT expert, who goes by the name Naalsio on Twitter, the tank "belonged to Russia's 27th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, 1st Guards Tank Army."

They continued: "It was abandoned in Kurylivka, Kharkiv Oblast around 25 September 2022. It was captured by Ukraine's 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, hence the yellow 9s on the tank while in Louisiana (this is the marking the 92nd puts on their equipment)."

Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for comment by email.

In September 2022 Ukrainian forces made rapid gains around the city of Kharkiv after breaking through Russian lines, during which they captured numerous tanks, as well as other armored vehicles, which had been abandoned by Putin's troops as they retreated.

Ukrainian forces are currently mounting a fierce defense of Bakhmut, in the country's Donbas region, amid growing speculation they are preparing to launch another counter-attack.

Update 04/15/23, 6:00 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with a photograph of the tank in question.