Russian claims that a British Challenger 2 tank was “destroyed” by a simple FPV military drone have been put in doubt by footage of the attack.
A video clip shows the strike on a tank in the Kursk region of Russia as Ukrainian troops staged an advance on the territory.
Two videos purport to highlight Russian strikes on the UK-supplied tank in snowy woodland.
“It was destroyed by drone crews from the 155th Guards Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet,” the pro-Putin Telegram war channel Rybar said, referencing the first video.
The channel claimed it had been hit by a “regular FPV drone” – but the first grainy video from an FPV camera appears to show a loss of signal before the drone hits the tank.
This could be because the drone was hit and disrupted by Ukrainian electronic warfare, which was widely reported to have been intensively used during the start of the Kyiv advance on Sunday.
The first video is also too grainy to absolutely identify the tank as a Challenger 2 – although it does not seem to be Soviet-era tank.
Challenger 2 tanks were deployed in the Kursk region as part of the latest military operation, but the second video – which shows the tank from afar – still doesn’t definitely identify the type.
And artillery hit marks on the ground around the tank that can’t be seen in the first video suggest there may have been a time lag between the two.
This suggests that the initial strike was not successful, as propogandists had claimed.
It is possible that the tank was pounded by artillery after an initial drone strike and before another. An explosion can clearly be seen at the end of the second video, but no aftermath footage has been released to show the damage caused.
It is also unclear whether the tank crew was killed, as claimed by pro-Putin war channels.
Nevertheless, the incident has sparked glee from Putin’s propoganda machine.
“Another British Challenger tank was hit with the help of an FPV drone,” said former Ukrainian MP Oleg Tsarev, who is now a propogandist.”
He added: “The Ukrainian Armed Forces had only 13 of them, and now, taking into account previous losses, less than half remain,” he added.
Russian war channels believe that the ongoing Ukrainian advance is a diversion from a later and more significant push.
“Against the backdrop of the attempted offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region, there have been rumours since morning that the attack in the direction of Bolshoye Soldatskoye is a diversion, and the main blow may be in another area,” Rybar reported.
“This is supported by the fact that the enemy clearly did not use the forces that it had been transferring to the Sumy region for several weeks.
“In particular, over the past few days, personnel have been actively transferred through the Ring Road in Kharkiv.
“Equipment with installed electronic warfare systems was also spotted there…
“The main events of the next offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are apparently still ahead.”