A Russian Lancet drone took out a Soviet-era tank during fighting near the border, the Defense Ministry has said
The Russian military has destroyed a Ukrainian tank with a kamikaze drone in Kursk Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, releasing video of the strike.
In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said that a Ukrainian tank has been added to the “scrap metal register” on the Russian border, without saying when and where exactly it was destroyed. Officials said that the armor was taken out with a Lancet loitering munition.
The video shared by the ministry shows a tank that appears to be part of a Ukrainian battle group positioned on a road and firing at an unknown target. There is another armored vehicle nearby. Both units bear a triangle – a tactical sign associated with the Ukrainian force that attacked Kursk Region last week.
The tank is then hit by a drone from behind in its engine compartment and catches fire. Engulfed in flames, it later exploded, apparently from an ammunition detonation, after rolling a dozen or so meters down the road. The fate of the crew is unknown.
The ministry identified the tank as a T-80, a late Soviet-era design armed with a 125mm cannon, which is used by both Ukraine and Russia. In a separate post about the fighting in Kursk Region, it also reported that Russian forces had taken out five other Ukrainian armored vehicles and around 20 service members.
Ukraine launched a large-scale assault on Kursk Region on Tuesday in what is the largest cross-border incursion into a Russian border region since the start of the conflict. Moscow has accused its neighbor of provocations and conducting indiscriminate strikes targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, have said that the purpose of the incursion was to instill fear in the Russian population and gain a better position for possible talks with Moscow.
While media reports suggested that Kiev’s forces had initially made some gains, the Russian military later said that the advance had been halted and that reinforcements had begun arriving in the region. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine has lost up to 1,120 troops and 140 armored vehicles since the start of the fighting in Kursk Region.
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