Us-supplied Bradleys destroy the Goliath of Russian tanks
UKRAINE’S Us-supplied Bradley infantry fighting vehicles disabled one of Russia’s most advanced tanks, peppering its armour with cannon fire before it smashed into a tree.
Drone footage released by Ukraine’s 47th Mechanised Brigade claims to show the Russian T-90 coming under heavy fire from close range in the Donetsk town of Stepove.
The tank appeared to take multiple hits during the Ukrainian salvo, with each direct strike letting off a bright flash as it hit the Russian fighting machine’s armour. Earlier footage of the clash appeared to show the T-90 losing control, its turret spinning in a frenzy, before hitting a tree.
A Ukrainian attack drone was then dispatched to finish off the tank and its crew fled on foot. It was later claimed that two of the soldiers were killed in action and a third captured.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the battle demonstrated that “infantry fighting vehicles can successfully engage and seriously damage modern main battle tanks”.
The T-90 is one of the most technologically sophisticated tanks being used by Russian forces in Ukraine. Despite eventually being overwhelmed by the Bradley’s 25mm cannon fire, it displayed greater resilience than other tanks that have been destroyed by Ukrainian forces.
Videos shared on social media showed the turrets of older Russian tanks being sent skywards after the ammunition stored in the hull exploded as a result of a direct hit. Mr Lee added: “That T-90M took 20 25mm rounds to its frontal armour and an FPV [first person-view] strike, and the entire crew survived.
“An IFV [infantry fighting vehicle] or APC [armoured personnel carrier] would not have been as lucky.” The T-90’s survivability appears to match that of the British Challenge 2 and German Leopard 2 tanks which have been donated to Ukraine.
While both Nato-standard tanks have been disabled on the battlefield in Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces have not lost a single crew member in any attack. Hamish de Bretton-gordon, a former Challenger 2 commander who described the Bradleys’ fight with the T-90 as a “David versus Goliath” moment, suggested the Russian tank could have got into difficulty because it was manned by an ill-prepared crew.
“They might be getting enough tanks back on track but they just can’t come up with the trained crews, which is proving a real problem for Russia,” he said. Moscow has lost 6,147 tanks since the start of the war, according to estimates by Ukraine.
American Bradleys were initially handed to Ukraine’s 47th Brigade, along with German Leopard 2 tanks, to spearhead the spring-summer counter-offensive last year.
The vehicles offered superior protection but became trapped in vast minefields, causing the offensive to largely fail. About a third of the 50 donated by Washington were lost in the initial thrust.
While many were destroyed, the vehicles were credited with saving their crews’ lives in drone and artillery attacks, thanks to the Western armour fitted to them.