Russia boasts it has destroyed Leopard tanks… but is mocked by analysts who say they’ve actually blown up TRACTORS
- Russian defence chiefs were mocked for claiming to destroy a Leopard 2 tank
Russian defence chiefs have been mocked for claiming to destroy a German-supplied lethal Leopard 2 tank – when in fact they had blown up tractors in Ukrainian fields.
The ridiculing was led by head of Wagner private army Yevgeny Prigozhin, who sees it as yet more evidence of blundering incompetence by Putin’s defence chiefs and army.
The Russian defence ministry hailed ‘footage of the destruction of foreign armoured vehicles, including Leopard tanks’.
But in reality, military analysts say the footage showed Russia blasting farm vehicles with a missile fired from a Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter.
In the video, a Russian crew member onboard the helicopter can be heard asking: ‘What kind of machine is that?’
Russian defence chiefs have been mocked for claiming to destroy a German-supplied lethal Leopard 2 tank – when in fact they hit a combine harvester in Ukrainian fields (pictured)
The Russian defence ministry hailed ‘footage of the destruction of foreign armoured vehicles, including Leopard tanks’
But in reality, military analysts say the footage showed Russia blasting farm vehicles with a missile fired from a Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter
One soldier can be heard saying: ‘Let’s hit it’, to which the other responds: ‘Ready to hit it.’
They then could be heard celebrating the strike and saying: ‘Yeah, direct hit.’
The defence ministry’s propaganda team told the Russian media that the footage shows ‘the destruction of foreign armoured vehicles, including Leopard tanks’.
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Lt-Gen Igor Konashenkov – the ministry’s spokesman – boasted about vast Ukrainian losses while providing no convincing evidence.
Total losses in recent fighting amounted to ‘over 1,500 Ukrainian servicemen, 28 tanks, including FRG-manufactured eight Leopard tanks, three French-manufactured AMX-10 wheeled tanks and 109 armoured fighting vehicles.’
But even Russian military analysts disputed the Leopard tank footage as the claim of destroying the German tanks quickly backfired.
The Military informer Telegram channel scoffed: ‘We do not want to state anything, but the vehicles in the footage published by the Russian Ministry of Defence do not resemble any tanks at all in their silhouette.
‘The silhouettes most closely resemble combine harvesters. This is evidenced by the characteristic high mounted discharge augers (pipes), which are clearly not guns due to their location. Also the “tanks” do not show any signs of turrets.’
The suspected targets were John Deere 9000 grain harvesters and a John Deere 4830 sprayer-like tractor.
‘We do not know why it was necessary to present footage of a mistaken defeat of agricultural equipment as an actual video of the defeat of the Leopards,’ the military analysts said.
Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, also accused Russian forces of mistaking combine harvesters for Leopard 2 tank.
‘The Russian Ministry of Defence has today posted some impressive work by [its troops],’ he said sarcastically.
‘The footage clearly shows Leopard tanks moving in a strange tactical manoeuvre towards each other. These tanks are disguised as combine harvesters.
‘Their muzzles are bent downwards. This did not prevent our [troops] from discerning enemy equipment in them…
Russian defence chiefs have been mocked for claiming to destroy a German-supplied lethal Leopard 2 tank – when in fact they hit a combine harvester in Ukrainian fields
Military analysts mocked the Russian defence ministry for claiming to have destroyed a Leopard 2 tank, when in reality they had destroyed tractors
‘These [Ukrainian] b******s have learned to disguise their tanks as harvesters, and their crew as farmers. Thanks {Russian troops] for your fine work. Now we will destroy anything with a bent muzzle.’
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Prigozhin also slammed the Russian defence ministry’s claims it had killed 1,500 of Kyiv’s soldiers in two days in the embattled city of Bakhmut as ‘absurd science fiction’.
Prigozhin, whose mercenary troops have spent months fighting in Bakhmut on behalf of the Kremlin, poured scorn on his country’s establishment after it claimed to have thwarted a second major offensive in Donetsk.
In remarks published on the Telegram channel of his press service, the 61-year-old said to kill that many Ukrainian troops would require daily gains of 150km (93 miles).
‘I therefore believe that this is simply wild and absurd science fiction,’ said Prigozhin.
Totting up the figures provided by the ministry would imply ‘we have already destroyed the entire planet five times over,’ he added sarcastically.
Separately, Prigozhin demanded 200,000 soldiers to be put under his control to correct the mess left by Russian forces.
He has warned that Russia is losing the war due to incompetence in the army high command.
‘The Wagner PMC [private military company] is today the only full-fledged army structure – with planes, helicopters, tanks, artillery and everything else that is needed,’ he said.
‘I need 200,000 people. Less than 200,000 on the front line Lugansk-Donetsk will not cope. We are ready to take full responsibility.’
He warned that Ukraine had already broken through Russian lines.
Prigozhin last week lambasted Russia’s military leaders after Ukrainian armed forces managed to retake settlements on the outskirts of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin said it was a ‘disgrace’ that Kyiv’s troops were able to push back Russian lines and seize Berkhivka, a town in the northern suburbs of the embattled city.
Prigozhin’s Wagner group just last month managed to wrest Bakhmut out of Ukrainian hands after months of brutal fighting reminiscent of World War I trench warfare, with tens of thousands killed on both sides.
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