The footage captured the moment Vladimir Putin’s forces were left humiliated as one of his biggest recent attacks in his war against Ukraine ended with substantial losses.
The Russian leader had ordered his troops to capture more territory in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, but the advance near Kurakhove resulted in mass death and destruction.
The failed assault resulted in the death of 40 invaders and left 37 more wounded.
Russia is carrying out intensive attacks on several sections of the Eastern Front, but in a Ukrainian victory, troops managed to repel 29 attacks in Kurakhove alone, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Dmytro Hutsuliak, revealed in his latest update.
Ukrainian paratroopers destroyed six Russian tanks and seven armored combat vehicles that were advancing when they were hit by kamikaze drones.
Russia suffered a major setback in an assault in the Kurakhove area of the Donetsk region with the loss of six tanks, seven armored personnel carriers with infantry and 12 military motorcycles.
Ukrainian paratroopers destroyed six Russian tanks and seven armored combat vehicles that were advancing after being hit by kamikaze drones
Ukraine’s 79th Independent Air Assault Brigade called the Russian advance “one of the largest assaults of the war”
The Russian strike group was also targeted by anti-tank gunners, said Ukraine’s 79th Separate Air Assault Brigade, also known as the Taurian Brigade.
The Russian military launched the attack from several directions simultaneously early Wednesday, the brigade said, while sharing footage of the assault.
The brutal attack reportedly involved some 57 armoured vehicles, 11 tanks, 12 motorcycles and 200 assault vehicles.
The Ukrainian brigade had detected the Russian equipment in advance and unleashed its fury against Moscow’s forces with incessant artillery fire.
The Russians are also said to have fallen on mines laid by Ukrainian sappers.
“As a result of the battle, our paratroopers knocked out six tanks and seven armored personnel carriers with infantry,” the brigade said in a statement.
‘The 12 motorcycles were burned.
‘The Russians suffered enormous losses in personnel: 40 occupiers were killed and another 37 were wounded.’
The substantial losses come after British Army chief General Sir Roly Walker warned yesterday that if Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine, it will take five years for his forces to achieve the minimum target of fully capturing just four regions, with a staggering loss of up to 1.8 million soldiers killed and wounded.
Walker was referring to the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south.
All of them are partially under Russian control after more than two and a half years of fighting and more than half a million casualties.
The Russians fell on mines placed by Ukrainian sappers.
The Russians used 11 tanks and 45 armored fighting vehicles, plus a Terminator tank support combat vehicle, in the assault.
The statement from Ukraine’s Taurian Brigade continues: “After destroying the first tanks and armored vehicles, other vehicles rushed to flee the battlefield. Drone operators finished off the infantry as they ran.”
The brigade called the Russian advance “one of the largest assaults of the war.”
The Russians used 11 tanks and 45 armored fighting vehicles, plus a Terminator tank support combat vehicle.
“The rest of the team fled the battlefield,” the statement said.
According to Hutsuliak, over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Air Force, as well as missile and artillery units, launched 13 strikes against enemy groups, hitting a checkpoint, an artillery system, two anti-aircraft missile systems and a radar.
The savage attack comes as the Kremlin revealed it is open to negotiations with Ukraine to end the war, something Moscow has called a special military operation.
But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday during a visit to China that kyiv was also prepared to negotiate with Russia as long as Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were fully respected, although he said Ukraine had seen no signs of that.
Asked on Thursday whether Russia would be willing to hold talks with Ukraine while President Volodymyr Zelensky is in power, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Russia is generally open to a negotiation process.
“But first we need to understand to what extent the Ukrainian side is prepared for this and to what extent it has permission from its interlocutors to do so.”
Putin said in June that Russia would end the war in Ukraine, but only if kyiv agreed to abandon its ambitions for NATO membership.