The moment a Russian tank was blown up by a Ukrainian missile fired from almost three miles away has been captured on camera.
Footage of the anti-tank missile in action has been released by 128th Mountain Assault Brigade – a unit of the Ukrainian Army.
The shaky video shows the Russian vehicle caught in the missile system’s crosshairs before the projectile flies through the air and meets its target.
The brigade titled the video: ‘Stugna against T-72: attackers of the 128th brigade destroyed a Russian tank with a Ukrainian missile from a distance of 4.5 km’.
The Stugna-P is a Ukrainian anti-tank guided missile system developed by the Luch Design Bureau, located in Kyiv.
It is understood the missile can be used to carry out long range – up to three miles in daylight, depending on the type of missile – and short range strikes of 100 yards.
The brigade said it took the missile just 21 seconds to travel almost three miles to the Russian tank.
Russia has not responded to the footage and it has not been independently verified.
In a statement released alongside the footage, the brigade said: ‘The missile from the Stugna anti-aircraft missile system flies at a speed of 200-220 metres per second, so the enemy tank was at a distance of about 4.5 kilometres.
‘(The tank) did not stand still, it moved, but this did not prevent the ATGM [anti-tank guided missile] operator from hitting [it].’
The brigade did not specify where in Ukraine the strike took place.
However, fighting has recently been most intense along a 300-mile front in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
The 128th is normally stationed in Mukachevo, in Western Ukraine.
The T-72 referred to by the brigade is a family of Soviet main battle tanks that entered production in 1969.
They are currently used by more than 40 countries, including both Russia and Ukraine, though the latter has retired most in favour of the earlier T-64.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) on Friday claimed the Russian military death toll has reached 21,000 personnel.
Accurate numbers of Russian casualties have been hard to come by since the start of the war with Moscow consistently stating figures significantly lower than Ukrainian and Western governments.
Metro
