See the drone video of the skirmish here:
The crew of a lone Ukrainian tank have been praised for ambushing an armoured Russian column on the outskirts of Kyiv.
The T-64BV main battle tank destroyed several vehicles in Nova Basan, a town 60 miles east of the capital, during a “chaotic” Russian retreat.
A drone captured the moment the vastly outgunned Ukrainian unit opened fire.
• Ukrainians use Russians’ thermobaric weapon against them
The first blast catches the Russian convoy by surprise but misses its target and blows a crater in a hilltop behind.
A firefight follows as Russians return fire in multiple directions, apparently unsure of where to aim.
The Ukrainian tank answers with a second strike and makes a direct hit on what analysts believe was a BTR-82A armoured personnel carrier.
Video shows Russian soldiers spraying heavy machinegun tracer rounds into the tree line and towards nearby properties.
But the bullets miss the attacker, which was strategically positioned out of sight just off the main road.
The stretch was being used by about a dozen Russian tanks and armoured trucks. It also included scores of soldiers on foot who could be seen running for cover.
• Russian troops ordered to ‘take out’ civilians
The group recorded in the video is believed to have been the tail end of a larger force that has been redirected to front lines in the east of Ukraine.
By the end of the battle, analysts said the tank had destroyed at least two armoured carriers before Ukrainian artillery engaged the remaining units, taking out “several tanks”.
Other Ukrainian tanks may well have been involved in a co-ordinated attack but were not visible in the drone video. Videos filmed from the ground in the aftermath show more burnt-out Russian vehicles.
Open-source intelligence experts who share scores of clips from the Ukrainian battlefield every day described the Ukrainian attack as “remarkable” and “insane”.
The Russian departure from Nova Basan was part of a planned withdrawal announced by Moscow last week. But it turned into a chaotic retreat as the tank battle that soldiers said took place on Thursday erupted.
Ukrainian forces spent much of Monday piling the bodies of dead Russian soldiers into a trailer pulled by an army jeep.
The New York Times reported that the invaders were “killed when a Ukrainian tank sneaked close to the entrance of the town and opened fire on the Russian checkpoint guarding the main intersection”.
Days earlier in the town of Lukyanivka, Russian troops suffered a significant defeat, the commander of a volunteer battalion told an NYT reporter.
“They were disappointed and they started moving out of several places,” he said, adding that this prompted the Ukrainian forces to pursue the retreating army.
“The military command made a very smart decision, first to make their withdrawal a chaotic route and second to cut their escape route.”
He said the battle in Nova Basan was bloody and panicked, with Russians forced to fight their way out.
During the battle, a Russian armoured vehicle crashed into a line of shops and another tumbled off the road, he said.
“Most Ukrainians did not believe in this operation,” he said, adding that the Ukrainians were badly outnumbered by the Russians. “But it was successful. We created real chaos with just a few people and a few vehicles.”
The Ukrainian forces simply are world’s better than mafia ones. Mafia troops are more interested in killing harmless civilians, stealing, and raping.
Too bad the video is hidden behind a pay wall. I found out after I weeded through several pop up ads, then a mailing list ad, then the drop down banner ad, then the pay wall. Its a wonder people even get to the news on some sites.