VIDEO Another $5 million Russian tank destroyed by Ukrainians with a hand grenade / Huge losses suffered by the Russian army

A new video shared by the Ukrainian military on social networks shows how they destroyed with a hand grenade another T-90M tank, the most modern one sent by Russia to fight in Ukraine, Russian losses in this chapter reaching a huge level .

Video footage that surfaced on social media on Tuesday shows how the tank was destroyed after being abandoned by its crew. Ukrainian drone operators manage to drop an M-67 hand grenade through one of the hatches left open, a technique they have been perfecting since the first months of the war, the explosion setting the tank on fire.

While it’s not entirely clear whether the T-90M tank was abandoned by the Russians during the mechanized offensive they attempted this Saturday near Avdiivka, a comparison of the new footage with video footage later released by the Ukrainians of repulsing the assault strongly suggests it was. thing.

Incidentally, a separate video has appeared on social networks since Saturday showing how an abandoned T-90M was destroyed by the Ukrainians, also with the help of a hand grenade launched into the hatch of the tank.

Russian forces of T-90M tanks have been decimated in Ukraine

The website Oryx, which independently monitors the losses suffered by both armies fighting in Ukraine, notes that since the start of the invasion the Russian army has lost 74 T-90M tanks, of which 38 were destroyed, 20 damaged and abandoned by their crews, 13 damaged and 3 captured by Ukrainians.

Ukrainian troops managed to capture their last T-90M tank last September, almost a year after the first such capture.

By early September 2023, Russia had lost 34 such tanks in Ukraine, a number that has now more than doubled. T-90M losses are huge for the Russian military considering that pre-war estimates put the total number of units it had of this model at around 100.

It’s not entirely clear how many of the damaged T-90M tanks could be repaired or how many the Russian arms industry was able to produce in the past two years as some Western analysts and officials estimate that Russia has doubled its tank production , from 100 units produced annually, to 200.

But a significant number of the new tanks produced are likely to be relatively older models, given the sanctions imposed by Ukraine’s partners on exports of electronic components to Russia.

Theoretically, Russia has only one tank more modern than the T-90M, the enigmatic T-14 “Armata”. But it was not sent to the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Sergey Cemezov, the executive director of the Russian conglomerate Rostec, which produces the T-14 “Armata” model, said just last month that it entered active service with the country’s armed forces, but that it is not used in Ukraine because it is too expensive .

“In terms of functionality, it is of course far superior to existing tanks, but it is too expensive, so the army is unlikely to use it now. It’s easier for them to buy the same T-90s,” Cemezov said in comments made to the RIA Novosti agency.

Follow the latest developments from the 769th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.