The war in Ukraine just keeps getting worse by the day.
Social media continues to give us a guide as to what will happen next.
Here is the latest peak into the action on the ground:
One Dead Russian BMP Video Deserves Another: If armored personnel carriers (APCs)/infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) were living, flesh & blood animals, the Soviet-designed BMP-2 might conceivably be eligible for placement on the Endangered Species List.
Barely 24 hours after we at 19FortyFive published a story dramatically depicting the destruction of a “Bimp” from a few months back (to use a Western slang term for the vehicle), we already have yet another video of one of these Russian vehicles getting blown away, thus providing yet another demonstration of the Ukrainian people’s dogged resistance against Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation”.
This video also was taken towards the end of February, just like the last one.
What We Know: Video Recording Basics
As with past video footage, the Twitter account in question is under the username Ukraine Weapons Tracker (“@UAWeapons”), this time with the caption reading as follows:
“#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 79th Air Assault Brigade took out a modernised Russian BMP-2M infantry fighting vehicle in the vicinity of Pobieda, #Donetsk Oblast.”
Whilst the past video runs a full minute and depicts a BMP-2 traveling at full speed and sustaining three strikes – evidently two land mines followed by some time of antitank guided missile (ATGM) – this one has a running time of a mere 4 seconds and depicts the IFV sitting stationary in the midst of a copse of denuded trees before literally going up in smoke.
The Killers: 79th Air Assault Brigade
Unlike the past video, this time, we have a specific Ukrainian unit positively identified as the recipient of credit for the kill: the 79th Air Assault Brigade in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.
The 79th is in turn a component of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces (Десáнтно-штурмові́ військá Украї́ни; known in short form as ДШВ/DshV), who since circa 2016 have been a separate branch of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the Ukrainian Ground Forces (contrasted with, say, America’s 101st Airborne Division [Air Assault], which is very much part of the U.S. Army) and are considered the elite of Ukraine’s military.
The Killee: BMP-2 (Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty) In Brief
At the risk of sounding like a broken record vis-à-vis yesterday’s article, I shall again provide some brief history and technical specs on the BMP-2: it debuted in 1980 as the successor to the 1966-vintage BMP-1, and shortly thereafter received its baptism of fire in the Soviet-Afghan War.
It weighs 14 tons and carries a crew of three along with a passenger load of up to seven infantry soldiers.
It’s armed with a 30mm autocannon and a 9K113 Konkurs ATGM launcher, whilst its steel armor provides all-round protection against 12.7 mm machine gun rounds but doesn’t hold up so well against land mines or ATGMs.
The 79th’s Weapon of Choice?
The Twitter blurb doesn’t specify what sort of weapons system the Ukrainian assault troops employed to destroy this particular unlucky “Bimp,” but additional research indicates that it’s the American-made FGM-148 Javelin.
Specifically, that same footage from Ukraine Weapons Tracker’s Twitter feed also appears as part of a more extensive 53-second video in (1) a Defense Express article by Sofiia Syngaivska titled “8 russian [sic] Vehicles Destroyed by the 79th Air Assault Brigade with the Javelin System in Maryinka (video),” published today, and (2) a Newsweek article by Nick Mordowanec titled “‘Brilliant’ Fighter Decimates 5 Russian Tanks in Single Battle: Ukraine,” published yesterday, both of which clearly identify the Javelin as the 79th’s dealer of doom to those hapless Russian BMP-2 crews.
#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 79th Air Assault Brigade took out a modernised Russian BMP-2M infantry fighting vehicle in the vicinity of Pobieda, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/DbSTKBeTic
— ???????? Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) February 28, 2023
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Christian D. Orr is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch and The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS).
