WASHINGTON (AP) – A grainy black-and-white gunsight video Russia launched this week to bolster a declare its navy blew up a few of Ukraine’s most fearsome tanks really documented the destruction of a tractor, based on a visible evaluation by The Associated Press.
The Russian Embassy in Washington introduced Monday on Twitter its forces had “annihilated” eight German-made Leopard tanks, among the many most superior and highly effective weapons NATO international locations have supplied to Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense then posted a video Tuesday on the social media community Telegram with textual content saying it confirmed “footage of the destruction of foreign armored vehicles, including Leopard tanks.”
The video was proven extensively by Russian state-controlled broadcasters and information websites, which mentioned it was recorded from the thermal imaging system of a KA-52 Alligator assault helicopter. Several black silhouettes of autos could be seen, earlier than the helicopter launches a guided missile that strikes one, inflicting it to blow up. “Direct hit!” says a voice on the recording, talking in Russian.
Germany introduced earlier this yr it might present 18 Leopard 2 essential battle tanks to Ukraine, which hopes to obtain round 100 donated by numerous NATO international locations over subsequent yr. The Leopard 2 is without doubt one of the most maneuverable and closely armored battle tanks on the planet, that includes a 120mm gun able to slicing by Russia’s Soviet-era tanks from greater than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away, based on its producer, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.
Ukrainian officers declined to remark this week on whether or not any of their Leopard tanks have been utilized in battle.
Almost instantly after the Russian video unfold on-line, a number of weapons specialists and navy bloggers started casting doubt on social media that the helicopter’s missile struck a tank, a lot much less a Leopard.
The visible evaluation by the AP reveals that the autos seen within the video, which was recorded at evening, look like massive items of stationary farm equipment parked in a subject, particularly a self-propelled sprayer and two combines used to reap corn and wheat.
The automobile struck by the Russian missile has 4 massive wheels and sits excessive off the bottom. Leopard 2 tanks are low slung and have treads, like a bulldozer.
The Russian Embassy additionally claimed this week that its forces had destroyed three French-made AMX-10 gentle tanks, which do have wheels. But the AMX-10 has six wheels, not 4.
The silhouette of the automobile destroyed within the video seems to extra intently match a self-propelled sprayer, a kind of specialised tractor widespread on trendy farms.
Thermal imaging techniques like that on the Russian helicopter detect sources of warmth to focus on enemy tanks and vans in smoky or low gentle circumstances. The stationary autos within the video seem black, that means their engines have been chilly.
Tank crews working on the entrance traces usually conceal themselves in vegetation or behind buildings, rising solely to maneuver and shoot, two specialists in navy autos instructed the AP. It can be extremely uncommon for tanks to be parked within the open, the place they make straightforward targets for enemy gunners, they mentioned.
The two specialists, who watched the Russian video, mentioned the automobile struck by the helicopter’s missile was not a Leopard tank nor some other kind of armored automobile.
“The silhouette of that particular vehicle or object did not look commensurate with what I’d be expecting for a Leopard tank,” mentioned George Barros, who leads the Geospatial Intelligence Team for Russia and Ukraine on the Institute for the Study of War. “I agree … that it was probably a piece of heavy farm equipment.”
Valentin Châtelet, a analysis affiliate at The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, additionally mentioned the objects within the video have been clearly not Leopard tanks.
“They are pointing their thermal camera at three vehicles that appear to be harvesters,” mentioned Châtelet, who is predicated in Brussels. “And the first target they’re hitting is most likely a sprayer.”
Though each Ukraine and Russia have at numerous occasions sought to downplay their battlefield losses, the analysts mentioned the Russian navy was significantly infamous for making claims of nice victories later confirmed to be false.
“If you follow what they post and what they claim, you will find that they’ve been outrageously wrong about a variety of different things, be it weapons systems hit that had never been delivered into the theater or official announcements of the Russians capturing particular villages or settlements multiple consecutive times without ever having gotten there in the first place,” Barros mentioned.
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Associated Press author Lynn Berry contributed.
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Follow AP Global Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at twitter.com/mbieseck.
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