A video released by the Ukrainian military purportedly shows a tank toasting a column of Russian armored vehicles in the embattled region of Donetsk.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense shared the video to Twitter on Thursday. The 27-second clip shows the tank firing on an approaching Russian convoy, with the vehicles being turned into fiery infernos one-by-one. A rock song by the Ukrainian band Karna plays as the action unfolds.
“Once upon a time in Donetsk region,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry commented while tweeting the video. “Tanks of the 53rd mechanized brigade vs a column of russian armoured vehicles.”
A video shared by the ministry earlier in the day, also featuring the handiwork of Ukraine’s 53rd Mechanized Brigade, appeared to show several Russian tanks being destroyed in Donetsk. Ukraine called the Russian offensive in the region a “suicidal plan.”
Ukrainian troops are pictured Thursday preparing a tank for battle near the front line of the country’s Kharkiv region. The Ukrainian military shared a video of a tank destroying a row of Russian armored vehicles in the Donetsk sector.
ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP
Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming to have annexed Donetsk and three other Ukrainian regions last year, bloody battles for control of the area continue more than a year after the war began.
In recent days, Russian forces have been escalating attacks near Bakhmut in particular. Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Wednesday that reinforcements were being sent to the town to counter the onslaught, according to The New York Times.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense predicted that warfare in the area was likely to become more difficult soon due to warmer weather conditions creating mud that would limit cross-country movement, or “CCM.”
“Daytime soil temperatures have risen and are now largely above freezing,” the ministry said in an intelligence update on Thursday. “Forecast warmer than average conditions for the remainder of winter and spring will further reduce CCM.”
“This will add further friction to ground operations and hamper the off-road movement of heavier armoured vehicles, especially over churned-up ground in the Bakhmut sector,” the update continued.
Meanwhile, Russian state media outlets on Thursday said that Ukrainian “saboteurs” had crossed the border and taken at least six people hostage in the Russian region of Bryansk.
A group called the Russian Volunteer Corps—which was formed in the summer and consists of Russians fighting for Kyiv—later claimed responsibility for the incident, while insisting that they had attacked military targets and not taken hostages.
Ukrainian officials also denied that their government was involved in the alleged incident and accused the Kremlin of engaging in a “deliberate provocation,” according to Reuters.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russia Ministry of Defense for comment. » …
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