The total destruction of the most modern tank that Russia is using in Ukraine

@DefAviation ES 10·08·2023 · 20:39 0

The Russian army continues to suffer heavy losses of armored vehicles in its invasion of Ukraine, including its most modern tank.

The mystery of the T-14 Armata and the old tanks that Russia is sending to the front
New humiliation for Russia: Ukraine captures a T-90M, the most modern active Russian tank

Currently, on a theoretical level, the most advanced Russian tank would be the T-14 Armata, which Russia said it had sent to Ukraine in April. The reality, as usual, differs greatly from the Kremlin's propaganda: so far not a single image of a T-14 Armata has been seen in Ukraine, something that could be explained by the numerous problems that this tank has. Instead, Russia is shipping more obsolete models, such as the T-54, T-55 and T-60.

The absence of the T-14 Armata means that the most modern tank of the Russian army in Ukraine is the T-90M Proryv. Russia does not have many of these tanks still in active use. In February 2020, the Russian media Vedomosti.ru published that between 2017-2019, Russia signed three contracts for T-90M tanks with a total volume of more than 160 vehicles, but deliveries appear to have slowed down , probably due to the shortage of electronic parts caused by Western sanctions on Russia.

The prestige of the T-90M was already affected last year. In May 2022, Ukrainian forces managed to destroy a T-90M for the first time, specifically in the Kharkiv region. The vehicle shown then was seriously damaged and completely burned, but the tank structure remained intact.

In September 2022, Ukraine captured an intact T-90M for the first time, in a new humiliation for the Russian army. So far, according to data published by Oryxspioenkop.com, Russia has already lost 45 T-90M (3 of them captured by Ukraine), a fairly high number, if we take into account that in May 2023 the estimates were that The Russian army could have 100 T-90M in active service. Today Ukrainian Front has released a video showing the total destruction of one of those tanks:

According to OSINTtechnical, these images would have been recorded east of Makiivka, in the region from Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. The tank would have been destroyed by an anti-tank missile fired by soldiers of the 66th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army. You can see here some screenshots of the video that show details of what happened.

The video shows a T-90M maneuvering in a rural area. On one side of the tank we see a partially detached Nakidka canvas, a camouflage material used by Russia as thermal insulation and as protection against radar signals. In the video, the Russian tank fires two shots with its 125 mm main gun. Here we see the moment of the second shot.

After that second shot, the T-90M receives a frontal hit. The shot was allegedly fired by the Ukrainian forces he was shooting at. Contrary to the usual customs of the Russian army, the tank commander appears leaning out of his hatch, probably to direct the shots.

After the impact, a strong explosion occurs, probably caused by the detonation of the projection charges located in the lower part of the T-90M. We see parts of the tank flying through the air.

The explosion seen from afar. The chances of survival with a detonation like this are zero.

In this image we see that the tank turret has been left upside down. The black circle is the opening in the lower part of the turret. This indicates that the turret was blown away by the explosion, a classic behavior of Soviet tanks equipped with automatic loaders, as we already saw here. By carrying the projection charges separately from the projectiles and without any protection, any fire inside the tank - such as that caused by the penetration of an enemy projectile - can cause these charges to make explosion, making the turret explode.

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Main photo: Russian Ministry of Defense. T-90M Proryv tanks delivered to the Taman Motorized Rifle Division in April 2020.