The Russian Embassy in Washington introduced Monday on Twitter its forces had “annihilated” eight German-made Leopard tanks, among the many most superior and highly effective weapons NATO international locations have offered to Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense then posted a video Tuesday on the social media community Telegram with textual content saying it confirmed “footage of the destruction of foreign armored vehicles, including Leopard tanks”.
The video was proven extensively by Russian state-controlled broadcasters and news websites, which mentioned it was recorded from the thermal imaging system of a KA-52 Alligator assault helicopter.
Several black silhouettes of autos will be seen, earlier than the helicopter launches a guided missile that strikes one, inflicting it to blow up. “Direct hit!” says a voice on the recording, talking in Russian.
Germany introduced earlier this yr it might present 18 Leopard 2 foremost battle tanks to Ukraine, which hopes to obtain round 100 donated by varied NATO international locations over subsequent yr.
The Leopard 2 is likely one of the most maneuverable and closely armored battle tanks on the earth, that includes a 120mm gun able to slicing via Russia’s Soviet-era tanks from greater than 4 kilometres away, in response to its producer, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.
Ukrainian officers declined to remark this week on whether or not any of their Leopard tanks have been utilized in battle.
Almost instantly after the Russian video unfold on-line, a number of weapons specialists and army bloggers started casting doubt on social media that the helicopter’s missile struck a tank, a lot much less a Leopard.
The visible evaluation by the AP reveals that the autos seen within the video, which was recorded at evening, seem like giant items of stationary farm equipment parked in a subject, particularly a self-propelled sprayer and two combines used to reap corn and wheat.
The automobile struck by the Russian missile has 4 giant wheels and sits excessive off the bottom. Leopard 2 tanks are low slung and have treads, like a bulldozer.
The Russian Embassy additionally claimed this week that its forces had destroyed three French-made AMX-10 gentle tanks, which do have wheels. But the AMX-10 has six wheels, not 4.
The silhouette of the automobile destroyed within the video seems to extra intently match a self-propelled sprayer, a kind of specialised tractor frequent on trendy farms.
Thermal imaging techniques like that on the Russian helicopter detect sources of warmth to focus on enemy tanks and vehicles in smoky or low gentle circumstances. The stationary autos within the video seem black, that means their engines have been chilly.
Tank crews working on the entrance traces usually conceal themselves in vegetation or behind buildings, rising solely to maneuver and shoot, two specialists in army autos instructed the AP. It can be extremely uncommon for tanks to be parked within the open, the place they make straightforward targets for enemy gunners, they mentioned.
The two specialists, who watched the Russian video, mentioned the automobile struck by the helicopter’s missile was not a Leopard tank nor every other sort of armored automobile.
“The silhouette of that particular vehicle or object did not look commensurate with what I’d be expecting for a Leopard tank,” mentioned George Barros, who leads the Geospatial Intelligence Team for Russia and Ukraine on the Institute for the Study of War. “I agree … that it was probably a piece of heavy farm equipment.”
Valentin Châtelet, a analysis affiliate at The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, additionally mentioned the objects within the video have been clearly not Leopard tanks.
“They are pointing their thermal camera at three vehicles that appear to be harvesters,” mentioned Châtelet, who is predicated in Brussels.
“And the first target they’re hitting is most likely a sprayer.”
Though each Ukraine and Russia have at varied instances sought to downplay their battlefield losses, the analysts mentioned the Russian army was notably infamous for making claims of nice victories later confirmed to be false.
“If you follow what they post and what they claim, you will find that they’ve been outrageously wrong about a variety of different things, be it weapons systems hit that had never been delivered into the theater or official announcements of the Russians capturing particular villages or settlements multiple consecutive times without ever having gotten there in the first place,” Barros mentioned.
Source: www.9news.com.au
