"Our military reported the destruction of the first Abrams in the Avdeyevka area. Perhaps this is the armored vehicle that was shown to the Ukraine military in a propaganda video, before the liberation of Avdeyevka. At that time, the armored vehicle was being guarded and was not brought to the line of contact," Gagin said.
Earlier this month, Russian forces entered the heart of the heavily fortified Donetsk suburb of Avdeyevka, with the Defense Ministry announcing that Russian troops had advanced over 8.5 km into Ukrainian positions behind the front on Sunday. The total area reportedly cleared out after fierce battles amounted to 31.75 square km during which Ukraine lost over 1,500 soldiers.
Our Fighters Will Demilitarize Ukraine - Kremlin
The destruction of the first Abrams tank used by Kiev shows that Russian soldiers are determined to demilitarize Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
"From the very beginning, our fighters said that these tanks would burn as well as others, but in general, as you and I know from the daily reports of the Ministry of Defense, this is the daily, systematic, professional and selfless work of our soldiers, who demilitarize Ukraine and do it daily," he told reporters.
Pentagon Declines to Comment
The US Department of Defense on Monday declined to confirm or provide any comments following media reports about its destruction and referred all inquiries to Kiev.
“We refer you to Ukraine to speak about this, in particular, and their operations in general,” the Pentagon told Sputnik in a statement.
*Budanov is wanted in Russia on terrorism charges