Two UAVs worth $500 each helped to destroy a multimillion-dollar heavy tank
© Getty Images / Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto
New footage has revealed how two Russian kamikaze drones destroyed a US-supplied Ukrainian M1 Abrams tank. According to RIA Novosti, the hardware was struck near the village of Berdychi, not far from Avdeevka, the Donbass city recently liberated by Moscow’s forces.
In the footage, one drone is seen striking the side of the tank’s turret, while the second UAV maneuvers to hit the more vulnerable roof of the Abrams.
Troops from Russia’s Army Group Center took out the tank using two FPV (first-person view) drones after they had immobilized it with a rocket-propelled grenade, RIA Novosti reported, citing a representative of the UAV’s manufacturer. The homemade kamikaze drones cost a little over $500 to produce, including the UAV and its control unit, the manufacturer previously told RT Russian.
The tank is the second Abrams destroyed by Russian forces in the Ukraine conflict, after the Defense Ministry in Moscow confirmed last month that a US-supplied armored vehicle had been taken out near Avdeevka.
The first tank had been stripped of its high-tech internal equipment before being shipped to Ukraine, Yan Gagin, an adviser to the head of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Saturday. “All innovations and secret technologies were removed from it so that Kiev would not get hold of them,” the official added, saying it had been rendered “an empty tin can with a cannon” after being destroyed.
He claimed that any foreign equipment is likely to either be stripped of numerous features in a similar way before being handed over to Kiev, or is likely to be accompanied by Western specialists.
Despite announcing the delivery of 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in January 2023, the US did not transfer them until the autumn. The vehicles were notably absent from the front lines until February, well after the failure of Kiev’s much-hyped counteroffensive.
Moscow maintains that no amount of Western weapons delivered to Ukraine will change the outcome of the conflict, and will merely prolong the fighting and cause unnecessary deaths.
READ MORE: Destroyed Ukrainian Abrams tank labeled ‘empty tin can’ (VIDEO)
