“Over the course of 18 months, Russia has gone from what people saw as the third most powerful military in the world to copying the tactics of Isis,” Nathan Ruser, a researcher at the International Cyber Policy Centre, said.
Military experts said the use of a VBIED by Russian forces highlighted their desperation after more than 16 months of fighting in Ukraine. as a result, according to radio intercept data, the enemy suffered significant losses,” he added.Īnalysts geolocated the footage close to the front line near Marinka in the Donetsk region, where fighting has been prevalent in the past week. “The explosion was very serious, there were a lot of explosives. I stayed behind to observe, and after the vehicle approached the enemy’s positions, I detonated it by radio control. “About 300 metres (984 feet) away from the enemy, the tank operator put the vehicle on manual gas, directing it direction,” he said. The stricken VBIED was then seemingly hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing an even larger explosion than the first.Ī Russian tank commander, call sign “Bernaul”, said he was responsible for the improvised attack. With the tank seemingly disabled, unsteady drone footage, shot from the direction of the Russian line, appeared to show the movement of Ukrainian troops in the trees. In a post on the Telegram messaging app, the ministry said the tank, which could date back to the 1940s, was packed with “about 3.5 tons of TNT and 5 FAB-100 bombs”.īut footage shared on social media appeared to show that the tank was destroyed before it reached its target of Ukrainian troops nestled in a tree line.Īs it approached, an explosion and a puff of black smoke engulfed the suicide tank from below, suggesting it had run into a landmine. The country’s defence ministry claimed the remote-controlled vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) destroyed a Ukrainian stronghold in the area. Russian troops sent a Soviet-era “kamikaze” tank loaded with dynamite to the Ukrainian force’s line in the eastern Donetsk region, in what appeared to be a new battlefield tactic.
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