Watch: Russia deploys 'suicide tank' loaded with six tonnes of TNT in Ukraine as dramatic footage shows huge explosion

19 June 2023, 08:47

Dramatic footage shows a massive explosion after Ukraine blows up a Russian tank packed with tonnes of explosives and driven towards their troops.

Moscow's latest deadly innovation in its faltered invasion has apparently seen it resort to packing older tanks with explosives and remotely driving them to their enemy's lines.

Drone footage shows Ukraine attack the T-54/55 "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device", which said to have been rigged with six tonnes of TNT.

"The attempt failed as the remotely-controlled bomb ran into a mine 100m from the front line, and was then hit by a Ukrainian RPG shot, causing a huge explosion," reported Calibre Obscura, a Twitter account that has extensively covered footage and claims that emerge from Ukraine.

Footage shows it detonate in a field, and it explodes into a massive fireball.

A vast shockwave blows out from the vehicle.

The T-54/55 is and old vehicle that first entered service in the Soviet Army and other Warsaw Pact nations shortly after the Second World War.

It may have come from Russia's reserves. It was thought that a few hundred were held in storage before the invasion.

But the aging vehicles should be no match for Ukraine's new Western tanks and its array of anti-armour weapons.

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It appears that this improvised "tank bomb" is the latest tactic Russia is using to halt Ukraine's counter-offensive.

Mick Ryan, a retired Australian major general, said: "So it is interesting that the Russians, having flooded the battlefield in Ukraine with thousands of autonomous aerial vehicles, are finally deploying ground based uncrewed combat vehicles.

"And even if they are slow and easy to target, with that much explosive they do not have to get very close to the Ukrainian military forces to cause death or destruction. The Russians are sure to continue trialling this approach, and learning.

"This use of UGVs on the battlefield in #Ukraine is another aspect of tactical #adaptation that we should watch.

"The use of uncrewed vehicles, particularly in high risk ground missions, is sure to expand."

It follows a more devastating tactic of Russia's - the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, which flooded parts of southern Ukraine.

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Moscow has denied involvement and tried to blame Kyiv instead.

But it clearly appears to have benefited from the flood on the Dnipro river.

An intelligence update from the Ministry of Defence said Moscow's "Dnipro Group of Forces (DGF)" had moved from the bank of the river to reinforce its defence of occupied Zaporizhzhia province and Bakhmut, the city Russia spent months trying to capture.

"The DGF redeployment likely reflects Russia's perception that a major Ukrainian attack across the Dnipro is now less likely following the collapse of Kakhovka Dam and the resulting flooding," the Ministry of Defence said.