A lone Russian tank keeping low in remote farmland was turned into a massive fireball by Ukraine’s Airborne Brigade.
A video of the assault shows a tank apparently parked alone in a field before it is struck by an American-made Javelin missile.
Zenger News obtained the footage from the 25th Airborne Brigade – an airborne unit of Ukrainian Air Assault Forces – earlier today (Monday, May 9).
The brigade said (in Ukrainian): “Lightning work of Sicheslav paratroopers from Javelin anti-tank missile defense system on the enemy tank!
“And so it will be with everyone who came to capture our land!
“Glory to Ukraine!”
Sicheslav Oblast is another name for Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, which is located in east-central Ukraine.
It is currently under full Ukrainian control but borders areas currently under Russian occupation.
The FGM-148 Javelin is an American-made portable anti-tank missile system in service since 1996.
Russian troops invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is now calling a “special military operation” to “protect Donbass”. Today marks the 75th day of the campaign.
From 24th February to 9th May, the total combat losses of Russian troops stand at around 25,650 personnel, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military also claims that Russia has lost 1,145 tanks, 2,764 armored fighting vehicles, 513 artillery systems, 185 multiple launch rocket systems, 87 anti-aircraft systems, 199 warplanes, 158 helicopters, 1,970 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, 12 vessels, 377 tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, 41 units of special equipment and 94 cruise missiles.
The update comes as Vladimir Putin addresses a huge military parade in Red Square in Moscow on Victory Day.
The annual event commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany at the hands of the Soviet Union in World War II.
The Russian President used his speech to claim Russian troops in eastern Ukraine were “defending the motherland”.
He also said the “special military operation” in Ukraine was necessary and was provoked by the West.
However, he did not make any major announcement concerning the invasion, as many had speculated.
Some 65,000 personnel, 2,400 items of military hardware and over 400 aircraft are taking part in today’s parades, which are taking place across 28 Russian cities.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday in his own Victory Day speech that Russia was repeating Nazi atrocities.
He also denounced heavy shelling carried out by Russia in eastern Ukraine and said a strike on a school building turned shelter in Luhansk Oblast killed 60.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called on Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine immediately.
