A video shared on social media captured the complete destruction of a Russian T-72B3 main battle tank (MBT) in Eastern Ukraine.
In the minute-long clip posted online on Tuesday, the Russian MBT can be seen hitting an anti-tank mine. A single crewmember appears to exit the vehicle and flee before the burning vehicle comes under fire from Ukrainian man-portable anti-tank guided missiles.
It is unlikely the other crewmen survived the attack.
According to Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons), which posted the video to Twitter, the incident occurred near the village of Dubovo-Vasylivka in the Donetsk Oblast. Troops from the Ukrainian 56th Motorized Brigade reportedly recorded the video and also fired on the Russian MBT.
The Armored Defenders of Mariupol
The Ukrainian brigade was initially activated in 2015, and it had been among the defenders of the city of Mariupol last year. It is now engaged in the fighting around Bakhmut and operates as an armored unit.
The brigade has been equipped with a variety of Soviet-era tanks, including the T-64BV, a modernized variant of the Cold War-era T-64. In addition, the 56th Motorized Brigade – also known as the Mariupol Brigade – operates a number of captured Russian T-72B3 MBTs, as well as T-72M1s, which were transferred from Poland to Kyiv last year.
Fighting Near Bakhmut
The area around the village of Dubovo-Vasylivka has seen intense fighting since March when Kyiv’s forces had repelled hundreds of attacks by Russian forces as the Kremlin attempted to take the city of Bakhmut.
Securing the urban center remains a key objective for Moscow. There had even been the goal of capturing Bakhmut by May 1 – later pushed back to May 8, to coincide with this month’s Victory Day Parade celebrations that mark the end of the Second World War. Kyiv ensured that Bakhmut would be held, and both sides have taken heavy casualties. The fighting has been so intense and the destruction so great in and around the city that it has evoked comparisons to the Second World War’s Battle of Stalingrad. The ground around the urban center is littered with dozens, perhaps even hundreds of destroyed vehicles.
This Russian T-72B3 is just the latest tank to be destroyed in the recent fighting. It certainly won’t be the last, and the question is how long the Kremlin can sustain such losses of tanks and other vehicles.
As of early February, Russia had reportedly lost half of its operational tank fleet in Ukraine. According to data from the open-source military intelligence website Oryx, some 1,000 Russian tanks had been destroyed in the fighting, while another 544 had been captured by Ukrainian forces just prior to the one-year anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion – and the numbers have only continued to increase in the two and a half months since.
All of that could certainly help to explain why a sole T-34 was the only tank to appear in this year’s Victory Day Parade in Moscow! Clearly, Russia has no tanks to spare, nor extra crews even if it.
#Ukraine: A Russian T-72B3 tank was destroyed by the Ukrainian 56th Motorized Brigade near Dubovo-Vasylivka, #Donetsk Oblast, after running over an anti-tank mine and then being finished off by AT fire. pic.twitter.com/BoYU23QBM3
— ???????? Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 8, 2023
Author Experience and Expertise:
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
