Putin’s blundering troops were caught on footage driving their tank straight into a ditch before Ukrainian drones opened fire on the sitting duck war machine.
The dramatic clip, released by the Ukrainian army, shows the massive tank storming down a muddy track at speed while firing into the distance.
Within just a few moments, the armoured vehicle is seen coming to a grinding halt as it rolls forward into a ditch in the ground.
The war machine in the footage is reportedly a T-90 – a late Soviet-era main battle tank which costs up to £4million per vehicle.
As the combat machine remains stuck nose-down in the earth, it quickly becomes a sitting duck and smoke can be seen emerging from its structure as the Ukrainians launch their attack on it.
Drone footage shows the Ukrainians targeting the helpless war vehicle as it fires rounds of ammunition in an attempt to leave it a battered and destroyed mess.
The embarrassing blunder comes as the war-torn country pushes on with its surprise counter-offensive in the Kursk region of Russia.
Just last week, Ukraine used British Storm Shadow missiles to eliminate two top Kremlin officers in a dramatic double strike across the Russian border.
The footage showed what is believed to be a T-90 Russian tank driving down a muddy track before it was fired at by Ukrainian drones
The tank embarrassingly got stuck in a ditch leaving it vulnerable to Ukrainian hits
Ukrainian drones were seen in footage targeting the helpless tank
The tank was continuously blasted by Ukrainian drones as the vehicle became a sitting duck after getting trapped
The strike on a key Russian command post in the Kursk region by half a dozen Ukrainian-deployed precision Storm Shadow missiles ‘killed eight and wounded 22’ in a major blow to tyrant President Vladimir Putin.
Chaotic footage showed the strike on Lgov targeting a building used by Russian serviceman, and yesterday it was revealed that the lives of two colonels were lost to the blast.
Lieutenant-Colonel Valery Tereshchenko, chief of communications of the elite 76th Pskov Airborne Division, was in a command post in which eight senior officers died.
In the same bunker was Colonel Pavel Maletsky, 39, commander of 656th separate engineer-sapper battalion.
Although the strike occurred on December 30, the high-ranking casualties were only disclosed on Sunday as details of their funerals emerged.
Originally the attack was believed to have been by US-supplied HIMARS missiles.
But later evidence indicates it was Storm Shadow, the type of missile supplied by Britain to the Ukrainians.
A December 30 Ukrainian strike using British Storm Shadow missiles ‘killed eight and wounded 22’ including two top Kremlin officials
Originally the attack was believed to have been by US-supplied HIMARS missiles. But later evidence indicates it was Storm Shadow, the type of missile supplied by Britain to the Ukrainians
The deaths of the two colonels come amid reports from both sides that Ukraine is staging an offensive in Kursk region, where Putin has positioned thousands of North Korean fighters to grab back territory controlled by Kyiv since an August 2024 incursion.
Ukrainian troops are moving from Sudzha towards Bolshoye Soldatskoye seeking to expand their land grab on Putin’s territory, exploiting frozen ground to push forwards.
The scale of the advance was not immediately clear.
‘The Ukrainian Armed Forces are actively using heavy equipment,’ said one report.
‘The offensive is associated with the frozen ground, which is favourable for equipment.’
Today President Zelensky said that Russian and North Korean troops had taken heavy losses.
‘In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroopers,’ he said.
‘This is significant,’ he added.
Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles are capable of dodging air defences – making them a nightmare attack weapon for their enemy
After just two weeks of Koreans on the front line, Zelenksy said that 3,000 of them had been killed or wounded – almost a third of the estimated 11,000 who were shipped over.
In a statement on Telegram, Russia’s defence ministry said: ‘At around 9am Moscow time, in order to stop the offensive by the Russian troops in the Kursk direction, the enemy launched a counter-attack by an assault detachment consisting of two tanks, one counter-obstacle vehicle, and 12 armoured fighting vehicles.’
Russia also recently suffered the loss of an Mi-28 helicopter in an unexplained crash in Voronezh region.
It is the fifth destroyed or damaged military helicopter in the past week, and the second Mi-28.
Three Mi-8 helicopters were hit by strikes from Ukrainian missile-firing Magura V5 Ukrainian sea drones in an historic first for modern warfare.
One of the Mi-8 helicopters managed to return to its base and land despite suffering damage.
The other two crashed with one report saying 16 people were killed.
The earlier Russian Mi-28 was lost in a friendly fire incident.
On Saturday night, Russia attacked Ukraine with 103 drones of which 61 were shot down and 42 ‘lost’.
Russia said 61 Ukrainian drones were destroyed in five regions.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
