Russian forces appear to have knocked out another US-made M1 Abrams tank supplied to Ukraine, striking it with at least two kamikaze drones, footage circulating online shows.
The new video, which emerged online on Tuesday, shows a lone M1 Abrams tank traveling at night time on a road at an undisclosed location. The vehicle, tracked by a surveillance UAV, is hit by a kamikaze FPV drone to the front, with its crew evacuating.
According to the footage, the abandoned tank was targeted by another FPV carrying an RPG warhead the following morning, with the drone striking the vehicle at the rear of its turret.
The strike caused a fire on board, with the tank closely watched by another FPV drone, which was also apparently carrying a munition, the footage shows.
The latest M1 Abrams strike brings the total number of destroyed or heavily damaged Ukrainian vehicles of this type to at least ten, a third of the total believed to have been received from the Pentagon.
Washington pledged to deliver some 31 M1 Abrams tanks and several M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles – which are based on the same chassis – to Kiev early last year, ahead of the much-hyped but ultimately disastrous Ukrainian counteroffensive. The delivery was only completed in mid-October, by which time the counteroffensive push was largely exhausted.
The tanks, which have featured prominently in Ukrainian propaganda videos, made their actual battlefield debut in February this year, with the armor fielded by Kiev with the aim of stopping Moscow’s westward push in Donbass following the liberation of the key town of Avdeevka.
While the first of the tanks were fielded without any modifications, their arguably poor frontline performance prompted Kiev’s forces to upgrade at least some of the surviving tanks, fitting them with Soviet-era reactive armor and anti-drone nettings.