Direct proof of use
The documented conflict-use case for this protected BMP-3 configuration is Russian service during the full-scale phase of the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War. Defense Express reported on April 20, 2023 that Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukraine's Tavria operational-strategic group of forces, had shown a photo of Russian armor destroyed during an assault attempt near Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine. The report identified two destroyed BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles with additional screen protection and said one of them carried the rare 675-sb3KDZ protection kit.
A later Defense Express article again used the Vuhledar image context to identify a Russian BMP-3 equipped with 675-sb3KDZ extra protection in April 2023. That second article described Russian BMP-3s in Ukraine being used for infantry-support fire, including direct and indirect fire roles, while also noting that the Vuhledar example showed that extra armor kits had not solved the vehicle's vulnerability on the battlefield.
Sources: Defense Express 675-sb3KDZ BMP-3, Defense Express BMP-3 Assault Guns
Timeline
Defense Express described the 675-sb3KDZ kit as a protection package originally associated with BMP-2 vehicles and reported, citing open-source data, that Russia ordered about 100 such kits in 2021. The same report said Russian BMP-3s with enhanced screen protection had appeared in photographs by November 2022, after Russia's full-scale invasion had exposed BMP-3s to heavy battlefield losses.
The clearest dated battlefield milestone for the BMP-3 675-sb3KDZ record is April 2023 near Vuhledar. Defense Express tied the destroyed Russian vehicle to an assault attempt on Ukrainian positions and dated the photo to April 2023; its article was published on April 20, 2023.
Sources: Defense Express 675-sb3KDZ BMP-3
Narrative
The BMP-3 675-sb3KDZ entry represents a battlefield protection fit on a Russian BMP-3 rather than a separate clean-sheet infantry fighting vehicle. Defense Express described the 675-sb3KDZ package as a polymer slat-armor set intended to improve protection against large-caliber machine-gun fire and anti-tank grenades while preserving the BMP's amphibious capability. In the Ukraine-war reporting used here, the kit appears as part of a wider Russian effort to add screens and other protection to BMP-3s after losses in the full-scale invasion.
The Vuhledar case places the system in a Russian armored assault context. Defense Express reported that the destroyed vehicles were part of an assault attempt near Ukrainian positions, and its later battlefield-role article described Russian BMP-3s in Ukraine being used to support infantry with fire from their 100 mm gun and 30 mm autocannon. The sourced record therefore supports Russian-side use as an up-armored frontline infantry fighting vehicle and fire-support platform, but it does not establish the unit operating the specific 675-sb3KDZ-equipped BMP-3 or a precise tactical effect beyond the documented loss.
Sources: Defense Express 675-sb3KDZ BMP-3, Defense Express BMP-3 Assault Guns, Rosoboronexport BMP-3
