Four Leopard and five Bradley?
Moscow announces strike against western tanks
6/10/2023, 6:28 p.m
Success reports from Moscow, as far as the war is concerned, have repeatedly turned out to be a duck. Now the Russian military wants to have destroyed a whole heap of Western war equipment within a day – and is providing a video as alleged evidence.
According to the Russian military, it has fended off further Ukrainian advances in the Zaporizhia region and in southern Donetsk, inflicting high losses on the attackers. “The total losses of the Ukrainian armed forces in the mentioned areas within one day amounted to up to 300 soldiers, 9 tanks, including 4 Leopards, and 11 armored personnel carriers, including 5 American Bradleys,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. A French Cesar howitzer was also said to have been destroyed. The information cannot be verified independently.
The Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted video of destroyed war material to support the claims, describing it as a “close-up of a fraction of the destroyed western hardware.”
There were attacks near the city of Orikhiv and on the border between the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions south of the village of Velyka Novosilka, the Russian Defense Ministry said. “All enemy attacks were repulsed,” and two Ukrainian marching columns were hit by Russian artillery. The authority then presented images of destroyed tanks. In the past, however, statements by the Russian Ministry of Defense about losses on the Ukrainian side have often turned out to be exaggerated.
At the beginning of the week, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported the destruction of eight Leopard-type main battle tanks. His agency then posted footage online as “video evidence,” which even pro-Russian military bloggers criticized as obviously false. The pictures presented by the Ministry as the destruction of a leopard, for example, show accidental shooting at a tractor.