A new video taken in the Luhansk area of eastern Ukraine showed Ukrainian forces destroying a Russian armored vehicle with an anti-tank guided missile.
The video was originally posted by the 24th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces on Wednesday. The video shows what appears to be some form of wire-guided missile following a Russian BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance vehicle as it drives down a roadway, with the missile making several course corrections before it finally strikes the back of the vehicle.
The Ukrainian 24th Mechanized Brigade, known as the “Royal Brigade,” shared the video in a Facebook post with a caption that roughly translates to: “Here’s a good morning tape for you. Here’s the recorded moment of the destruction of the racist BRDM-2 (combat reconnaissance patrol car) by the soldiers of the Royal Brigade in the Luhansk region. Glory to the Armed Forces! Glory to Ukraine.”
An official Facebook account for Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense also shared the video.
It was not immediately clear what weapon the Ukrainian forces used to destroy the Russian armored vehicle.
The Twitter account Ukrainian Weapons Tracker, which has documented various weapons in use throughout the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, has documented Ukrainian forces using various wire-guided anti-tank missile launchers throughout the fighting, including Russian-made 3M6 Shmel and 9M133 Kornet missile launchers.
As of Friday, the 100th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military assessed Russia has lost more than 30,000 troops, 1,367 tanks, 3,366 armored personnel vehicles and more than 2,000 other vehicles of various types.
Exact combat losses from both sides of the fighting are hard to independently verify as neither Russia nor Ukraine has provided regular assessments of the combat losses from their own side.
Oryx, a group that has worked to provide photographic documentation for each piece of Russian equipment lost so far in Ukraine has documented 4,214 Russian vehicles and pieces of military equipment lost in the fighting, including 2,458 destroyed, 72 damaged, 316 abandoned and 1,367 captured.
Oryx has also documented 1,122 Ukrainian vehicles and pieces of military equipment lost in the fighting, including 535 destroyed, 24 damaged, 35 abandoned and 528 captured.
The U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries have sent tens of billions of dollars to help arm Ukraine against Russia. On May 20, the New York Times reported the U.S. alone has spent around $54 billion to support Ukraine, including $12.5 billion in weapons and other military supplies, $6 billion in military and security assistance, $4.7 billion in grants and loans for military supplies. The U.S. supplied weapons have included thousands of man-portable anti-tank weapons like the Javelin missile, as well as more advanced crew-served artillery weapons.
