These images show a Ukrainian high-speed kamikaze drone hitting a Russian tank.
The footage, relayed from the drone to its operator’s control screen, shows it circling an area and searching for a target before it can be seen honing in on the Russian tank.
The video feed cuts out as the drone hits its target, with the Ukrainian drone operator and a colleague heard cheering as the footage ends.
The images were obtained from Operational Command ‘East’ of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Tuesday, 21st February, along with a statement saying: “Destroying an enemy tank with a high-speed kamikaze drone – this is how our separate reconnaissance battalion works.”
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022 in what the Kremlin is still calling a “special military operation”. Today marks the 363rd day of the full-scale war.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between 24th February 2022 and 21st February 2023, Russia had lost about 144,440 personnel, 3,326 tanks, 6,562 armoured combat vehicles, 2,338 artillery units, 471 multiple launch rocket systems, 243 air defence systems, 299 warplanes, 287 helicopters, 2,023 drones, 873 cruise missiles, 18 warships, 5,210 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 226 units of special equipment.
Russia has claimed that its casualties have been much lower but provides infrequent updates on its latest figures.
US President Joe Biden travelled to Kyiv for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion and met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday.
Biden announced a new package of additional aid to Ukraine worth USD 500 million, including ammunition for artillery.
The visit by the US president comes just a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to make a state of the nation address today, Tuesday.
The UK Ministry of Defence has said that Russia will most likely claim that it has captured Bakhmut to mark the one-year anniversary of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, whatever the reality on the ground.
President Biden arrived in Warsaw on Monday evening to meet Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, as well as other Eastern European NATO leaders.
President Zelensky said that he and President Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine, even though it wasn’t supplied before.”
European Union foreign ministers have discussed providing ammunition to Ukraine together at a meeting in Brussels, with the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell saying: “It is the most urgent issue. If we fail on that, the result of the war is in danger.”
He added that Ukraine’s allies should dig into their own national stocks now to ensure that Kyiv has enough ammunition to continue defending itself from Russian aggression.
Wang Yi, China’s highest-ranking diplomat, is reportedly set to visit Moscow as the final stage of an eight-day tour of Europe. He is widely expected to propose a political settlement to the war.
Wang said, while in Hungary ahead of his visit to Russia: “We would like a political solution to provide a peaceful and sustainable framework to Europe.”
President Zelensky has warned that there will be a “world war” if China provides military support to Russia in its war in Ukraine.
He said that he would like China to be “on our side” and added: “If China allies itself with Russia, there will be a world war, and I do think that China is aware of that.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s notorious Wagner mercenary organisation, has admitted that there are “major problems” regarding ammunition supplies for his troops.
He has also reportedly accused Russian officials of deliberately denying his soldiers sufficient ammunition.
Former UK prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have urged the current UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, to send fighter jets to Ukraine.
Johnson said that the British government needed to “cut to the chase” and “give them the planes”.
Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian President of Belarus and an ally of Russia, has said that his country will form a new territorial defence force as a result of the ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
