The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday reported the destruction of another Ukraine-operated M1 Abrams tank, and shared drone footage of an artillery strike on the vehicle.
The US-made tank was found to the northwest of the Russian city of Avdeevka in Donetsk People’s Republic and a 152-mm Msta-S self-propelled howitzer was deployed to strike it. The heavy vehicle became stuck in the mud and was unable to drive away, the military said.
The howitzer fired a single Krasnopol guided shell, scoring a direct hit. The tank was destroyed on the spot with all of its occupants, a crew member of the Msta-S said.
Footage shared by the ministry shows the tank stuck with one of its tracks in a ditch, appearing to be an overgrown trench. The Krasnopol shell was guided by an Orlan-30 drone that had been tracking the tank.
Washington pledged a batch of some 31 M1 Abrams tanks and several M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles – which are based on the same chassis – in January 2023, ahead of the long-hyped yet ultimately disastrous Ukrainian counteroffensive. The tanks made it to Ukraine only in mid-October, when the counteroffensive was largely exhausted.
The tanks starred in multiple Ukrainian propaganda videos before making an actual battlefield debut in February this year, when the vehicles were deployed in an effort to stabilize the frontline after the liberation of Avdeevka by the Russian troops. Over a dozen of the tanks have been destroyed since then.