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Ukrainian forces decimated a Russian column of 11 tanks and armored vehicles.
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Ukraine heavily relied on FPV attack drones to obliterate the Russian vehicles.
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Russia’s perceived tactical blunders are increasingly frustrating Russian military bloggers.
Ukrainian forces deployed FPV, or first-person-view, attack drones to help obliterate a column of Russian armored vehicles, Metro reported.
Video appears to show Ukrainian exploding drones finishing off 11 tanks and armored vehicles. It included three T-72 tanks, five tracked amphibious armored fighting vehicles, and an infantry fighting vehicle reduced to burning hulks scattered across the battlefield.
Ukraine also destroyed two tracked armored fighting vehicles, one with an anti-tank guided missile, Metro reported.
The battle was near the settlement of Novomykhailivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which Russia has been attempting to capture since October.
Cameras mounted on the attacking drones and those flying overhead captured the assault, showing the devastation to the Russian column.
The convoy was maneuvering near the front lines along the east of Ukraine and became vulnerable to fire from artillery and swift and targeted drone strikes.
Leveling Russia’s battlefield advantage
Footage shows the FPV exploding drones accelerating toward the Russian tanks and armored vehicles, with the feed abruptly cutting off just before impact.
Other footage gives a panoramic view, showing the dark shapes of tanks in motion, some bursting into flames as the exploding drones hit, followed by an aftermath of smoking, twisted wrecks abandoned in winter fields pockmarked with shell holes.
The video was dated January 30. According to reports, the battle lasted nearly 2 ½ hours.
Business Insider could not independently verify the video.
The apparent victory against the armored column matters because Ukraine increasingly sees relatively inexpensive drone technology as a way of leveling Russia’s battlefield advantage.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, wrote on Thursday for CNN News that with accelerated technical innovations, the nature of war had changed.
He highlighted the key role that unmanned weapons systems, such as drones, play in helping Ukraine against Putin’s forces despite Russia’s significant manpower and weapon superiority.
FPV drones are an effective and low-cost weapon that Russia and Ukraine have used since the start of the full-scale invasion.
“Perhaps the number one priority here is mastery of an entire arsenal of (relatively) cheap, modern and highly effective unmanned vehicles and other technological means.
Already such assets allow commanders to monitor the situation on the battlefield in real time, day and night, and in all weather conditions,” Ukraine’s top military leader wrote.
‘Complete stupidity and incompetence’
While the number of casualties from the wrecked armored column remains unknown, the strikes triggered a backlash among pro-war “Z” channels associated with Putin, expressing frustration over perceived military incompetence, Metro reported.
Russian military bloggers have become increasingly frustrated with the Russian military’s tactics. Russian forces continue to self-sabotage by gathering in large groups to attack Ukrainian positions, making them an easy target for Ukrainian drones.
The Institute for the Study of War, or ISW, a US think tank, said one Russian military blogger expressed dismay at Russian forces‘ tactics, describing them as “complete stupidity and incompetence.”
Another Kremlin-affiliated milblogger argued that Russian military command needs to stop attacking in mechanized columns due to repeated high equipment losses.
The milblogger also criticized military leadership for not accounting for Ukrainian drone operations and not equipping Russian armored vehicles with electronic-warfare systems, ISW said.
Ukraine, after nearly two years of war, has called on the West to bolster its defenses. The increased use of drone attacks, which have reached targets as far afield as Moscow and St. Petersburg, has become a strategic focus for Ukraine.
“It’s a war of armor against projectiles. At the moment, projectiles are winning,” Gleb Molchanov, a Ukrainian drone operator, told The Guardian.
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