Dima reported on this. Seems the armor is more effective against drones than reactive armor, but the turret is very limited in its rotation. However, this particular tank, a one-of-a-kind, had turret damage that prevented a field repair, so the Russians put on the (thick) plating and used it to clear mines, which is why it was spotted leading a (successful) assault.
Sounds to me like the Neocons are up against some rather SMART people, which isn’t a surprise to Home Schooling Americans who use Russian Math to teach their kids. Hopefully, next time we pick out our enemies a bit more carefully.
Since they were apparently sleeping during the "Russian Math" classes they forgot that shadows and sun angles would allow the building to be geolocated.
Now that workshop and its contents are destroyed, whether or not the Russian mechanics survived or not is unknown.
Nobody could ask for a better "enemy" than Russia. They have the economic might of Italy without the high quality design skills, and so far haven't been able to defeat a tiny, poor nation that is right next to them. Russia's military would be destroyed by US forces in days if they decided to fight the USA.
Also, in case you didn't know, the reason Russian Math is taught in the USA is that the best math teachers in Russia left since they were smart enough to realize that leaving Russia was their best option.
You have become beholden to the Axis of Evil and Hamas terrorism as a result of your Russia support