The Russian army claims to have knocked out an American Abrams tank, which would be the first official loss of this type of tank in Ukraine.
“The enemy lost up to 485 soldiers, two tanks, including an American-made Abrams
,” boasted the Ministry of Defense in a press release on
“the progress of the special military operation”
dated February 26.
The images published on the networks show, in fact, an M1 Abrams tank destroyed around the village of Berdychi, about ten kilometers from Avdiivka, evacuated by the Ukrainians on February 17.
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Kremlin forces have been carrying out a vigorous offensive there for several days.
A Bradley infantry fighting vehicle was also reportedly knocked out of action.
The Abrams tank, in all likelihood in light of this image, was damaged by a drone behind its turret on February 26.
Information to be cross-referenced with the use of Abrams by the 47th mechanized infantry brigade, which has been fighting around Avdiivka for several weeks.
A video, moreover, showed an M1A1 Abrams tank fighting around Stepove on February 23, a few hundred meters from Berdychi.
The 47th brigade, contrary to popular belief, is not equipped with German Leopard tanks.
The 1st tank brigade uses them.
On the other hand, it makes good use of the 31 Abrams tanks delivered by the United States.
After several months of international pressure, Washington finally gave its agreement, at the beginning of January 2023, to sending these tanks to Ukraine.
“
The Abrams tanks are serious weapons
,” said the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, on September 26, 2023, while Ukrainian President Zelensky welcomed the arrival of the first examples on the ground.
“
They will burn too
,” he continued.
An ancient tank
The Abrams M1A1 tank, with which the Ukrainian forces are equipped, weighs between 55 and 60 tonnes and was put into service in 1980. Special feature: it is powered by a turbine, and not a diesel engine, although common on other tanks, making it more complex its maintenance.
It has a 120 mm cannon, the standard NATO caliber, but also 12.7 mm and 7.62 mm machine guns.
It is also not equipped with an active protection system, which allows projectiles aimed at the tank to be neutralized.
Thus munitions dropped by drones.
The Abrams tank is therefore sometimes covered, like the Bradleys, with iron mesh, which can stop these munitions.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: what the first images of American Abrams tanks deployed by kyiv reveal
If the M1A1 is not the most modern version of the Abrams tank, it is nonetheless extremely effective.
Proof of the fear he inspires, the actor and Orthodox priest Ivan Okhlobystin declared that he would offer 10 million rubles, or 100,000 euros, to each soldier who destroyed an Abrams tank.
Ivan Okhlobystin is best known for proposing to burn homosexuals alive.