The turret of a Russian tank was sent flying high into the sky in a demolition operation conducted by Ukrainian soldiers.
Video footage of the blast shows heavy tank parts flying hundreds of feet into the air.
A slow-motion replay of the blast published by The Sun reveals the magnitude of the powerful explosion.
Illia Ponomarenko of the Kyiv Independent also shared footage of the blast on Thursday.
Russian tank goes down pic.twitter.com/sn4G1CE8v3
— Illia Ponomarenko ?? (@IAPonomarenko) April 7, 2022
A demolition wire running from a stick to the tank can be seen shaking after the powerful explosion, making it much more likely that the vehicle was stationary and abandoned when it was destroyed.
The footage may present an example of the jack-in-the-box effect, when a tank’s ammunition stockpile is detonated to create an even more powerful explosion.
The soldier carrying out the blast is quick to fall back in the aftermath of the demolition, with such an explosion posing a potential hazard even from a hundred yards away.
It’s common for tank components to fly upward into the air in explosions of the sort, appearing to defy gravity only through immense force.
Ukraine’s 25th Airborne Brigade shared video of the destruction of the tank on Thursday.
An earlier video from the paratrooper unit featured the destruction of a moving armored vehicle with a guided anti-tank rocket.
The unit has also published drone footage of a direct hit on a Russian tank.
It’s not clear where the demolition took place, but military analysts have identified the 25th Airborne Brigade as operating in a region in the southeast of Ukraine.
Photos of a destroyed Russian tank (looks like a T-72 variant), MT-LBM 6MB, and possibly a destroyed MRAP in Zaporizhzhia Oblast posted by Ukraine’s 25th Airborne Brigade.https://t.co/OSAbAvvFxV pic.twitter.com/Eh2sy2zso5
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 31, 2022
Zaporizhzhia Oblast contains Mariupol, a coastal city that has featured the bloodiest combat between Russians and Ukrainians in the entire war.
Heavy tank losses on the part of both the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces have raised questions about the utility of the vehicles in wars of the future.
And yet, one well-hidden Ukrainian tank was able to engage an entire Russian convoy, with the enemy returning fire wildly into a Ukrainian town.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
