T-62 Seen Hitting Landmine Outside of Bakhmut – “War porn” videos continue to make the rounds on social media, where a drone is used to record the destruction of a tank or other high-value military target. Both Kyiv and Moscow have used these videos as a form of propaganda that highlights their victories as well as the setback suffered by the enemy.
These are typically recorded via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which also act as spotters for artillery.
Enemy Mine
In a clip shared on social media on Monday morning, Ukrainian forces recorded the destruction of a T-62 tank as it drove “directly into a line of anti-tank mines.”
As the commentator noted, the Cold War-era tank is quickly becoming among the destroyed Russian tanks on the front lines.
The nearly minute-and-half-long video shows the tank hit a mine, and the Russian crew is then seen exiting the disabled tank. It is notable that the crew exits the vehicle slowly – almost as one would leave an Uber, collecting themselves as they gathered their positions before they scurried to safety.
Old Tanks on the Modern Battlefield
Russia began to deploy these antiquated tanks to bolster its forces after seeing thousands of more modern main battle tanks destroyed in Ukraine. Last fall, the first images of the Kremlin deploying the T-62 tanks being shipped from storage via rail circulated on social media.
It could be argued those tanks belong in a museum, not on the battlefield.
Of course, throughout last summer, dozens of Russia’s more modern tanks have been used in a variety of displays in Kyiv and other Western cities after being disabled on the frontlines. As a result, many on social media had mocked the Russian military, even as the Kremlin has been “upgrading” the tanks at a facility in the Russian Far East. Some 800 have already been modernized.
The Soviet-era medium tank has also seen use in a number of recent conflicts, including the Syrian Civil War, the Second Libyan Civil War, and the Yemeni Civil War.
Yet, in all those cases it was largely employed against forces that lacked capable anti-tank weapons.
Tank Recovery
Yet, Russia has also not been alone in employing the T-62.
Ukraine has also found another use for the older vehicles, and it was reported earlier this year that Ukrainian engineers are turning captured Russian T-62s that were recovered in the Donbas region into vehicles that could be used to recover other – and potentially higher value – tanks. Armored recovery vehicles have long played a critical role on the battlefield, ensuring that disabled tanks don’t fall into enemy hands, and are used to tow the damaged hulks back to friendly lines.
In the recent fighting, many more tanks have been damaged than destroyed in battle – and that fact also explains why both sides have employed drones to drop ordnance to ensure the destruction of disabled enemy armor.
As the video is graphic, we have not embedded it. You can watch it at this link.
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.
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