Russia claims to have destroyed a British Challenger 2 tank operating within its borders as military bloggers trumpeted Moscow’s troops’ efforts to repel Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk.
Images shared by the Troika milblogging Telegram channel showed how an FPV drone swooped on British armor protruding from some bushes.
There was no immediate evidence of an explosion, but Challenger 2 – operated by the Ukrainian military inside Russia’s Kursk region – was destroyed by Marines from the Russian 155th Brigade under the turret at “its main weak point”, according to Russian reports.
“The very fact that it was transferred by the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a reserve to the Kursk province indicates the enemy’s intention to maintain the occupied lines in our region at all costs,” said a message from the Two Majors Telegram channel, published again on the Rybar military channel.
“The enemy throws new reserves, NATO armored vehicles into battle and puts up fierce resistance,” the military blog channel concluded.
Russia claims to have destroyed at least one other Challenger 2 tank, supplied to Ukraine by the United Kingdom.
Russia claims to have destroyed a British Challenger 2 tank operating within its borders as military bloggers trumpeted Moscow’s troops’ efforts to repel Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk.
Images shared by the Telegram Troika milblogging channel showed how an FPV drone swooped on the British armor sticking out of some bushes.
November 13, 2024: The Russian army’s Solntsepyok multiple rocket launcher fires at Ukrainian positions in the border area of the Kursk region, Russia.
In this image taken from a video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Thursday, November 7, 2024, Russian army soldiers fight with Ukrainian armed forces in the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region of Russia.
A photo provided by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service shows the site of a rocket attack on a five-story residential building in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on Nov. 11, 2024.
The doomed Challenger 2 tank is believed to have been operated by the Ukrainian Army’s 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade.
Its destruction in Kursk comes as Russia builds up some 50,000 troops in preparation for a major operation to repel Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region, a presence Vladimir Putin views as humiliating.
The force is likely to include about 10,000 North Korean soldiers recruited by Putin.
kyiv troops continue to control hundreds of square kilometers of the Kursk region near the border with Ukraine.
Elsewhere, Russian forces are said to have reached the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, but each side disputed the other’s claims about battles taking place there.
Russian Milbloggers claimed that armored units had moved into the northeastern city and begun to seize territory.
‘At night, enemy resources reported from the Kupiansk direction about the entry of our troops into Kupiansk, marking the beginning of the battle for the city. According to enemy estimates, two columns of Russian equipment advanced from the Liman Pervy area to Kupiansk.
“They managed to enter the city and land troops, who dispersed among the houses in the Svatovskaya Street area.”
But the Ukrainian military declared this morning that its troops were in full control of Kupiansk and that its forces had stopped the Russian advance toward the railway hub.
“The alleged presence of Russian troops in the city of Kupiansk is not true,” wrote the General Staff of the Ukrainian army in the Telegram messenger.
A Russian-appointed official earlier said Moscow’s forces were gaining ground on the city’s outskirts, more than two and a half years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Kupiansk was captured by Moscow’s forces in the early days of its February 2022 invasion and recaptured by Ukrainian troops in a swift counteroffensive months later.
Russian forces suffered an average of around 1,500 deaths and injuries per day in Ukraine during October, according to the UK’s chief of the defense staff.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the BBC that the Russian people were paying an “extraordinary price” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, saying October was the worst month in terms of losses since the conflict began in February 2022. .
A view from a drone showing a destroyed Russian armored vehicle in part of a forest where the hottest phase of the war is taking place on November 9, 2024. The forest is located about 8 kilometers southwest of Kreminna in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine
A view shows a destroyed bridge, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on November 4, 2024.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin (pictured) told the BBC that the Russian people were paying an “extraordinary price” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, and said October was the worst month for losses since the conflict began in February 2022.
Putin’s forces (pictured) suffered an average of around 1,500 deaths and injuries per day in Ukraine during October, according to Sir Tony.
“Russia is about to have 700,000 people killed or injured – the enormous pain and suffering that the Russian nation has to endure because of Putin’s ambition,” he told Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
He said that while Russia was making gains and putting pressure on Ukraine, the losses were due “to small increments of land.”
The cost of the war, which he estimates at more than 40 percent of public spending on defense and security, is also “an enormous drain” on Russia.
As the election of US President-elect Donald Trump casts doubt on US support for Ukraine, Sir Tony said Western allies would support them “as long as it is necessary”.
“That is the message that President Putin must assimilate and peace of mind for President Zelensky,” he said.
Writing in The Sunday Times, Sir Tony said the growing threat from authoritarian states, including Russia, North Korea and the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen, is putting the international community “under immense pressure”.
“This is a new era of competition and competition that will last decades and has the potential to be more damaging to our economy and our security than anything Britain has experienced in modern times,” he wrote.
This comes just two weeks after NATO top brass said Putin had lost more than 600,000 troops in Ukraine, forcing him to increasingly rely on foreign support for his invasion.
The secretary general of the military bloc, Mark Rutte, said that as a result of the heavy losses, North Korean troops were sent to Russia’s Kursk region.