Putin’s tanks and armor are getting smashed in Ukraine: New video footage shared on social media this week shows the sheer power and accuracy of Ukraine’s Stugna-P ATGM weapons systems, striking and destroying a Russian MT-LB. The strike was conducted by Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade, with the video showing the vehicle traveling along a dirt road before it was hit by an enemy rocket and destroyed.
While the black-and-white footage isn’t particularly clear, the vehicle does appear to be fully disabled by the strike, with fragments of the vehicle seen launched into the air.
The video was shared by a Facebook account representing the 24th Mechanized Brigade.
The clip featured a caption written in Ukrainian describing the clip as one of the brigade’s “favorite” videos.
“The occupiers have such an interesting quest – to take a fighting vehicle, load it with orcs inside and from 5-8 on top, for persuasion, and go to meet our anti-tank fighters,” the caption reads, per Google Translate.
“We are a hospitable people and the operators of Stugna-P PTRK are happy to greet uninvited guests. Here they happily meet MTLB with the occupiers, most of whom have already returned home in the right packaging (if lucky).”
Is Russia Pulling Old Vehicles Out Of Storage?
The Russian MT-LB vehicle destroyed in the Ukrainian strike is a multi-purpose amphibious auxiliary armored tracked vehicle. First designed in the mid 20th century, the vehicle has remained in use since.
More than 80 variants of the vehicle have been developed since, meaning the vehicle seen in the video likely doesn’t date back half a century. In all likelihood, the vehicle could be a modernized version developed in recent decades. Nonetheless, it could be true that this MT-LB vehicle was pulled out of storage in response to the thousands of Russian armored vehicles and tanks destroyed by Russian forces so far.
Video of a Ukrainian Stugna-P ATGM strike by Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade on a Russian MT-LB.https://t.co/JllAgHwOQj pic.twitter.com/J5w8O11cqu
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) June 10, 2022
Many MT-LB tanks have been taken out of storage in recent months, along with an unknown number of Soviet T-62 tanks – both vehicles that feature dated armor shells that are vulnerable to modern missiles and rockets.
Stugna-P anti-tank guided missile systems have proven particularly effective at neutralizing Russia’s Soviet-era tanks and armored vehicles, using 130mm and 152mm missiles fitted with RK-2S, RK-2OF, RK-2M-K, and RK-2M-OF warheads. Stugna-P missile systems were first delivered to Ukraine in 2018 and have proven one of the most capable missiles in Ukraine’s arsenal since, along with the U.S.-supplied Javelin missiles, U.K.-supplied NLAW, and German Panzerfaust 3.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
