Ukraine has said a video released on Saturday shows how its troops had successfully engaged Russian tanks overnight.
The clip tweeted by Ukraine’s security service the SBU shows a bird’s-eye view of military vehicles exploding after being hit from above.
“Nine or ten? TEN! So many Russian tanks were destroyed by special forces of the SBU “White Wolves” in just one night!” the SBU said on Telegram alongside the clip, which has more than 47,000 views as of Saturday afternoon.
The SBU said an armored personnel carrier was also hit in the attacks towards Russian-occupied Donetsk. The video has not been independently verified and the exact location of the alleged strikes has not been stated. News week has emailed the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
It comes after another video went viral of allegedly Ukrainian troops attacking one of Russia’s T-90 tanks, which are considered some of the invaders’ most advanced equipment.
Ukraine’s interior adviser Anton Gerashchenko tweeted how his country’s National Guard brigade was among the Ukrainian armed forces that tracked down and destroyed “the pride of the Russian defense industry – the T90 Proryv tank”.
On Saturday, Kiev held talks with US officials about upcoming US military aid, including arms and ammunition, Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.
They discussed “the current situation at the front, combat operations in the most difficult directions, as well as about the urgent needs of the Ukrainian army,” Yermak wrote according to one translation.
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On the phone was US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said on Thursday that Ukraine “has no time to lose” ahead of an expected spring offensive.
Austin had said the US had to comply “quickly and completely” with what it had promised Kiev. That included bringing armored capabilities to the battlefield and making sure Ukrainian troops “get the training, spares and maintenance support they need,” Politico reported.
Meanwhile, Russian media reported on Saturday how Vladimir Putin had visited the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula nine years after he declared the occupation. He attended an art school in the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, accompanied by local governor Mikhail Razvozhayev, according to footage broadcast on TV.
The Russian president’s visit to the Moscow Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, came a day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him for his role in the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.