Dramatic moment Russian tank hits mine and explodes, captured on video by drone
The moment a Russian armoured vehicle driver drove straight into a mine that blew it to pieces as the occupants fled has been captured on video.
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A drone has captured extraordinarity footage of the moment a Russian armoured vehicle was driven directly over a landmine in Ukraine, triggering an explosion which blew it apart and sent soldiers scurrying for their lives.
The video clip showed several Russian soldiers sitting on top of the soviet-era BMP - an infantry fighting vehicle - as it travelled off a road and onto a field. Within seconds, a huge blast erupted from underneath it before smoke and flames bellowed from the wreckage. Occupants of the tank could be see fleeing on foot.
The landmine detonated as the BMP drove between the wreckages of two other similar Russian tanks, which appeared to have met a similar fate. While it was not clear what destroyed the other two, craters caused by artillery could be seen nearby.
Video of a Russian BMP running over a mine next to two damaged BMPs. A good indication of why Russian troops ride on top of their BMPs. https://t.co/vsaYefR0F9pic.twitter.com/L84xWMjKYB
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) August 15, 2022
A drone captured the footage on the outskirts of the Ukrainian village of Yakovlivka, found in the eastern Donetsk Oblast. The region is in the Russian-occupied Donbas, where fierce fighting continues amid a months-long stalemate.
CYBER HACKERS HIT EUROPE’S LARGEST NUCLEAR PLANT
Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom has reported what it called an “unprecedented” cyberattack on its website “from Russian territory”.
Despite the attack, the company said its operations had not been disrupted.
“On August 16, 2022, the most powerful cyberattack since the start of the Russian invasion occurred against Energoatom’s website,” the operator said on Telegram.
It “was attacked from Russian territory”.
The Russian “popular cyberarmy” group used more than 7 million internet bots to attack the website for three hours, Energoatom said.
But the assault “did not have a considerable impact on the work of the Energoatom website”.
A Telegram channel called “popular cyberarmy” in Russian around midday called on its followers to attack the Ukrainian nuclear operator’s website.
But by Tuesday evening, it had announced a “change” in plans, redirecting supporters to a new target, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, whose website was sluggish.
The cyberattack comes as tensions flare over the Zaporizhzhia power plant in the south of the country, which Russian forces occupied in March, shortly after the invasion began.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the nuclear installation, which is the largest in Europe, sparking fears of a nuclear accident.
Ukraine counted on four nuclear power stations to supply it with around half of its electricity supply before Russia’s invasion on February 24.
Ukraine was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986, when the Chernobyl power station’s reactor number four exploded.
The power station’s three other reactors were successively closed down, with the latest shutting off in 2000.
Russian troops on the first day of the invasion seized the Chernobyl plant, occupying it and a highly radioactive exclusion zone around the complex for several weeks.
RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE ATTACKED
An act of “sabotage” at a Russian military base was reportedly carried out by an elite squad of Ukrainian special forces operating covertly behind enemy lines.
Russia’s defence ministry said that a fire broke out after several explosions at a temporary ammunition storage facility in the Dzhankoi area of north Crimea, with images showing fire and billowing smoke above the village of Maiske early Tuesday local time.
At least one, and possibly two, Ukrainian special forces groups working with Ukraine, Ukrainian sympathisers in Crimea were behind the attack, according to Sky News.
Correspondent Alistair Bunkall in Odessa said Ukrainian forces and Crimea residents were working together to disrupt Russian operations in the peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
At least two people were injured as a result of the attack, according to Russian State media.
Russia’s top official in Crimea added that trains were delayed and 3,000 people living nearby were evacuated from their homes, Sergei Aksyonov, Russia’s top official in Crimea added.
“As a result of an act of sabotage, a military storage facility near the village of Dzhankoi was damaged,” the ministry said in an earlier statement carried by Russian news agencies.
“Damage was caused to a number of civilian facilities, including power lines, a power plant, a railway track as well as a number of residential buildings. There were no serious injuries,” it added.
And here is the very moment of the explosion in Dzhankoy in the Crimea.#Ukraine#Russiapic.twitter.com/eANauEEaND
— RoINTEL (@RoINTEL) August 16, 2022
Images posted on social media showed huge fireballs erupting at the site and clouds of black smoke billowing into the air.
Crimea’s Moscow-appointed governor Sergei Aksyonov, who went to the site, said two civilians had been injured but that their lives were not at risk.
On August 9, Moscow said ammunition had detonated at a military airfield in Crimea, killing one person and wounding several more.
It indicated that the airfield was not targeted by Ukrainian forces but experts said satellite imagery pointed to a likely attack, with several Russian warplanes destroyed.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for any attacks in Crimea but officials have made several comments suggesting its forces could be involved.
PUTIN CLAIMS RUSSIAN WEAPONS ‘DECADES AHEAD’
Vladimir Putin has promised Russian allies “modern” weapons that are “decades” ahead of Western offerings in an arms deal.
The Russian leader boasted of its “superior” offerings at a speech at the Army-2022 arms expo in Moscow, where delegations from more than 70 countries are looking to get a good deal.
“[We] are ready to offer our allies the most modern types of weapons, from small arms to armoured vehicles and artillery to combat aviation and unmanned aerial vehicles,” Mr Putin said.
“Almost all of them have been used more than once in real combat operations,” he added.
“Many of them are years, if not decades, ahead of their foreign counterparts.
“And in terms of tactical and technical characteristics, they are significantly superior.”
The Russian leader’s comments come as his allies expressed concern about its tanks and other military assets, which have taken heavy hits in recent weeks.
TOP KREMLIN GOES BEHIND PUTIN’S BACK
A top-ranking Kremlin official has gone behind Mr Putin’s back and secretly approached the West in a bid to end the war on Ukraine, a leaked document, obtained by journalists in Europe, suggests.
A report detailing the claims was circulated to Western intelligence agencies, according to multiple reports.
“A representative of Putin’s inner-circle sent a signal to the West about the desire to negotiate. The mood of the Kremlin elite is panic,” the document said.
The document partially revealed the unnamed Kremlin insider as “one of the pillars of the regime”, who reached out to a CIA officer and a Western diplomat over growing concerns about Russia’s economy, the trade sanctions imposed by the West and the situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
UKRAINE STRIKES ELITE RUSSIAN FIGHTER BASE
Ukraine has reported it struck the headquarters of Russia’s elite paramilitary organisation the Wagner Group on Monday.
The strike came just days after the location of the Wagner headquarters were mistakenly revealed in photos posted online by Russian propagandist Sergei Sreda.
The attack was also acknowledged by Pro-Kremlin war reports.
The private military group is believed to be behind some of the world’s worst crimes.
It was reportedly founded by a former special forces Colonel, Dmitry Utkin.
NUCLEAR PLANT FOCUS OF UN MEETING
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and UN chief Antonio Guterres discussed the security situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, which is currently under Moscow’s control and has been the target of fighting, Moscow said on Monday.
“Sergei Shoigu conducted telephone negotiations with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regarding the conditions for safe operation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
The plant, Europe’s biggest nuclear facility, was captured by Russian troops at the beginning of March, not long after Moscow launched its military offensive in Ukraine.
Since the end of July, Zaporizhzhia has been the target of a number of military strikes, with both Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of being behind the shelling.
The fighting at the plant has triggered fears of a possible nuclear catastrophe and was the subject of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council last Thursday.
Ukraine has accused Russia of using the plant as a base for possible attacks and for storing weapons.
Kyiv, backed by its Western allies, has called for the area to be demilitarised and for Moscow to withdraw its troops there.
The defence ministry said that Shoigu and Guterres also discussed the strikes on the Kremlin-controlled Olenivka prison in eastern Ukraine at the end of July, which left dozens of Ukrainian prisoners dead.
Kyiv accuses Moscow of the mass killings, but Moscow denies the charges and says Kyiv was behind the strikes.
FEARS OVER ‘NEW CHERNOBYL’ ATTACK IN UKRAINE
The risk of disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear plant is “increasing every day” with fears it will be a new Chernobyl after Ukraine vowed to attack Russian troops for refusing to leave the site.
The Zaporizhzhia plant — in southeastern Ukraine — was occupied by Russian forces in March and Kyiv has accused Moscow of basing hundreds of soldiers and storing arms there.
However, the facility has come under fire repeatedly in the past week, with atomic energy chiefs warning that the risk of a catastrophe is “grave” as the invaders defy pleas to demilitarise the danger zone.
“What is happening there is outright nuclear terrorism, and it can end unpredictably at any moment,” Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of Energodar city where the plant is based, told the AFP.
“The risks are increasing every day.”
Both Ukrainian and Russia have been blaming each other for shelling at Europe’s largest atomic power station.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously accused the Russians of “nuclear blackmail” and warned that Vladimir Putin’s troops there had become “special targets”.
Mr Zelenskyy said his soldiers will have no option but to attack them if they continue to fire at civilians.
Petro Kotin, boss of the firm operating the plant, said 174 containers of radioactive material were in danger of being hit.
“We could have a radiation cloud. The risk is very high,” Mr Kotin said.
“Every Russian soldier who shoots at the plant or shoots using the plant as cover must understand he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
There are now growing fears a stray shell could cause a nightmare worse than the 1986 Chernobyl disaster 643km away which killed at least 31 people and sent a radioactive cloud across Europe.
In the village of Vyshchetarasivka, on the opposite bank of the Dnipro to the plant, resident Viktor Shabanin told the AFP that the latest developments had left people “nervous”.
“Often the wind blows in our direction. So the radiation will go immediately to us, and the radiation will go into the water,” the 57-year-old said.
AFP correspondents on the ground heard air raid sirens and distant strikes on Sunday but reported no fresh fighting around the facility.
Anastasiya Rudenko believes her late husband, who worked to decontaminate the Chernobyl disaster zone, died of bladder cancer in 2014 due to radiation.
“We could have the same fate as the people of Chernobyl,” the 63-year-old told AFP.
“There’s nothing good in what’s going on, and we don’t know how it will end.”
Backed by Western allies, Ukraine has called for a demilitarised zone around the plant and demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces.
– additional reporting by AFP
Originally published as Dramatic moment Russian tank hits mine and explodes, captured on video by drone
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