T-72 tanks. Russo-Ukrainian War During the War in Donbas, units on both sides of the conflict have improvised armour added to vehicles like the BTR-80, an amphibious armoured personnel carrier. The Azov Battalion has developed their own vehicle, the Azovets, similar to the Russian BMPT Terminator. In late 2021, various Russian tanks were observed with top-mounted improvised slat armour made from steel grilles. In December 2021, the Ukrainian Army released video of a military exercise in which an armoured fighting vehicle (apparently a BTR mated to a T-64-like turret) protected by armour of this sort was destroyed by one of the two Javelin missiles fired. However, the actual combat effectiveness of this style of armour was still unknown. In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine where it saw combat usage, it was pejoratively referred to as "emotional support armour" or "cope cages" among online communities, as an expression of skepticism over their effectiveness. Military analysts have suggested that the armour was most likely designed in an attempt to mitigate the threat of top-attack weapons such as the FGM-148 Javelin, alternatively against RPGs fired from above in cities, loitering munitions and drone attacks. In May 2022, it was reported in Russian media interviews with Russian tankers who had returned from Ukraine that their crews eventually removed the cages, as they obstructed the use of machine guns and radios, and prevented timely evacuation if the tank caught fire. In June 2022 similar structures were seen on some Russian deployed T-62 tanks. After the invasion Russian forces began to add improvised armour to their trucks. First in the form of scrap metal, logs and armoured panels from armoured vehicles such as APCs and later in the form of more form-fitting welded plates. Syrian Civil War and War against the Islamic State In their role in the ongoing Syrian Kurdish–Islamist conflict and Syrian Civil War and finding themselves lacking in the amount of modern armour, members of the Kurdistan peshmerga and People's Protection Units (YPG) were reported to have fabricated homemade armoured fighting vehicles of widely varying designs to fight ISIS militants, who are armed with captured modern armour. Many of the improvised vehicles were converted tractors and farm equipment fitted with Soviet-era guns, some with elaborate paint schemes and designs. Western commentators and reporters have likened the appearance of some of these vehicles as like the makeshift vehicles featured in the Mad