Strike On Russian Tanks

Strike On Russian Tanks – The drone video of the attack also cheered Ukrainian soldiers inside the city. “It was beautiful,” said one soldier manning a checkpoint, who declined to be identified. “We just poured it onto them.” The video showed plumes of black smoke and dust bursting on the pavement and a tank apparently trying, awkwardly, to pivot on the shoulder of the road to head back the other way.

But the attack by Ukrainian troops in Brovary also cast into sharp relief the strategic challenges — and, military analysts say, the strategic missteps — that have bedeviled Russian forces and prevented them, so far, from gaining control of most major cities.

They included members of a family whose car was shot at Thursday by Russian forces who had dispersed into a wooded area east of the town after Wednesday’s ambush. The father, Sergei Lugina, said a bullet hit his 14-year-old daughter, Yekaterina, in the right shoulder and another blew off three fingers on his right hand. He said he managed to keep driving until he reached a Ukrainian checkpoint.

Russia Claims To Have Captured Kharkiv Village

From that perspective the strike, which set off fighting through a swath of villages in this area that is still ongoing, was only a partial success. In drone video of the ambush released by the Ukrainian army, which largely corresponds to Private Berezenko’s account, many Russian armored vehicles can be seen driving away, apparently unharmed, while others burn.

The group said the tank, part of an armored column, was hit by a mortar strike that was corrected for accuracy by a drone flying overhead. The Wall Street Journal has noted drones being used for this purpose in Ukraine.

Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.

Military analysts share Ukrainian soldiers’ puzzlement over the halting Russian advances toward Kyiv so far. It might be a pause, while a new strategy is devised, said Dima Adamsky, an expert on Russian security policy at Reichman University in Israel.

What We Know

He said the column was moving with self-propelled artillery vehicles, which typically operate to the rear of frontline forces, mixed with tanks. Indeed, in the video released by the Ukrainian military, what appears to be a Russian Tos-1, a rocket artillery launcher nicknamed the Pinocchio for its bulging nose-like box of rockets, is seen driving amid the mayhem of exploding tanks.

“In fact, one soldier told Breaking Defense, a large number of Russians had come over from their booth to check out the US stand — and the mood was, perhaps surprisingly, jovial. So much so, he said, that he traded patches with one Russian,” the report reads, adding that Russian and American exhibitors were separated by a single other display at the event.

The Kharkiv footage comes as Russia claims to have “liberated” a village in Kharkiv Oblast. On Saturday, February 18, the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that the village of Hrianykivka, located in the eastern region of Kharkiv, had been captured from the Ukrainians.

Brovary is just eight miles from downtown Kyiv, and the skirmish on the M01 Highway on Wednesday illustrated how close Russian forces have come as they continue to tighten a noose on the nation’s capital — the biggest prize of all in the war. The Russians continued on Friday to try to close in on Kyiv, with combat to the northwest and east that consisted mostly of fierce, seesaw battles for control of small towns and roads.

Luhansk regional governor, Serhiy Haidai, said on Monday that a fresh push from Moscow’s forces “can begin any time after February 15.” He later reported increased attacks in the eastern Donbas region, adding: “This is not a full-scale offensive, but preparation for it.”

On the first day of the war, the Russian military attempted a lightning raid on the capital using special forces in an elite airborne unit. These troops tried to seize an airfield north of Kyiv, in the town of Hostomel, in a helicopter assault with the apparent goal of creating a staging area for a quick attack.

Though Russian forces greatly outnumber the Ukrainian army and have far superior weaponry, their size and their need to mostly use open roads make them less mobile and susceptible to attack from Ukrainian troops that can launch artillery strikes from several miles away, in tandem with surgical ambushes.

The missiles, which were sent in abundance to Ukraine by the United Kingdom and the United States, continue to provide Ukrainian soldiers with vital firepower as Russia launches a fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine – and a video shared on social media shows just how powerful these missiles can be.

The Javelin missile is seen striking the vehicle the moment the clip begins, leaving behind a warped mass of metal emitting plumes of white smoke. Sections of the vehicle’s armor, as well as other parts of the vehicle, can also be seen flying into the air upon impact.

In the hours and days after the strike, 20 wounded soldiers and civilians arrived at the hospital in Brovary. Volodymyr Andriets, the deputy director of the emergency room, said all had suffered concussions or wounds from shrapnel or bullets.

He said days of artillery shelling had dulled his nerves. “I was feeling normal” and not nervous during the skirmish, he said. “There is nothing exciting about seeing a tank,’’ he said. “Everybody wants to live.”

This tactic was evident in the strike on the column outside of Brovary, where armored vehicles were hit as they exited the open fields and entered a stretch of highway bordered by houses, blocking any escapes.

But Ukrainian troops shot down a number of helicopters, sending the operation into disarray, then drove those Russians who had managed to land off the airfield and into a forest, according to Ukrainian soldiers who took part in that battle.

“They were convinced in the success of Plan A, that they would take Kyiv without a lot of bloodshed, but now are reverting to an older form of warfare,” said Mr. Bukkvoll, of the Norwegian research center.

Soldiers standing around the vehicle can also be seen fleeing the scene. Around half a dozen soldiers look as though they successfully escape the strike, though one soldier can be seen running and then falling to the ground as though he was injured.

Reports from Ukrainian sources, and analysis posted by Russian “milbloggers,” indicates that Russian military commanders may be “in a rush to launch the decisive offensive,” the Institute for the Study of War think tank said on Monday.

Still, Private Berezenko said that from his viewpoint as a soldier, the episode was indicative of Russian mistakes. The cluster of armored vehicles on the road was an easy target, he said. “Their artillery came first, then their tanks. The whole scenario was weird,” he said.

Ukrainian forces appear to be holding on in Bakhmut, despite Russian bombardments. In a video recorded on February 21, one Ukrainian service member describes how there has been no success by the Russian in Bakhmut, despite ongoing and frequent assault.

WATCH: Javelin Missiles Strike Again – Britain’s FGM-148 Javelin, a portable surface-to-air missile system that can easily be used by a single soldier, has proven one of the most effective ways for Ukrainian soldiers to take out Russian armor and tanks since the early days of the conflict.

Videos posted on Ukrainian social networks showed an armored personnel carrier, peeled open by an explosion and spewing yellow flames. A Reuters videographer shot footage of Ukrainian soldiers starting up and driving away an abandoned Russian tank. It was unclear how many armored vehicles were in the column and how many were destroyed.

Writing on Facebook on Tuesday morning, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces attached a video of what appears to be Russian tanks being targeted by Ukrainian weapons systems, with the footage showing smoke and fire. The operational update then said 1,900 Russian soldiers had been killed in the past two days.

Illia Berezenko, a Ukrainian soldier who witnessed the Ukrainian attack on the Russian armored column on Wednesday from a distant position but did not take part in it, said it aimed to hit the first and last tank in the column, in hopes of trapping those in the middle.

Ukrainian forces have long been capturing Russian weapons and tanks to be used against their original owners in the ongoing war. Back in October, the British defense ministry said that a “large proportion” of Kyiv’s military hardware was now made up of captured Russian equipment.

“It is nice to see how the equipment that the Come Back Alive team passes to the front units brings tangible results and helps our defenders to beat the Russian aggressor, to inflict tangible blows on him,” the charity said.

This is an increase of 14 compared with Monday’s report by the General Staff. A further Russian 11 tanks had been taken out of action the previous day, the General Staff said in its daily update.

In the clip, which was shared on Facebook by the official account for the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a Russian BMP infantry fighting vehicle is seen getting totally destroyed by two Javelin missile strikes.

Emma Nehls

Emma Nehls is a military writer and historian with a passion for exploring the intricacies of warfare and the human experience within the military. With extensive knowledge and a deep understanding of military strategy, tactics, and historical contexts, Nehls brings a unique perspective to his writings.