Russia’s Defense Ministry has published footage showing the operations of a mobile, tank-hunting unit on the frontline in the southern Donetsk direction.
The footage shows a small ATV-style vehicle traversing the local environs, and stopping to fire from an 9m113 Konkurs wire-guided anti-tank missile system attached to the vehicle’s cabin at an enemy vehicle. This particular tank-hunter crew is said to have destroyed two enemy tanks and four armored fighting vehicles.
Russian mobile tank-hunting units have proven instrumental in blunting Ukraine’s counteroffensive. On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Ukrainian forces had launched attacks in seven different directions along the front using five brigades' worth of troops, but that they were stopped after losing more than 1,600 soldiers and 28 tanks, among them 8 German-made Leopards and 3 French-made AMX-10 vehicles, and 109 other armored combat vehicles.
NATO countries have sent tens of billions of dollars-worth of advanced military hardware to Kiev, including heavy Leopard, Leopard 2, and Challenger 2 main battle tanks. The United States has promised to deliver 31 M1 Abrams. Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington and its allies of the risk of escalation posed by these deliveries, while the Russian military has assured that all NATO arms given to Kiev to attack Russian forces will be destroyed in due course.