A video posted to Twitter last weekend purportedly showed Ukrainian artillery units destroying two Russian tanks.
According to Peter Suciu from the website 19FortyFive, the attack on the T-72/T-80 series Russian tanks was carried out by the 26th Artillery Brigade last week using HIMARS under the observation of a Ukrainian Leleka-100 drone.
On Wednesday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that on Tuesday, Ukrainian forces destroyed another four Russian tanks, along with 9 artillery systems, 12 armored vehicles, and 23 unmanned aircraft, and killed around 620 Russians.
In an interview published in the Associated Press on Monday, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said that in delivering ammunition and heavy armored vehicles, the US and NATO have helped Ukraine achieve the technical equipment necessary to launch its spring counteroffensive against Russian forces.
The war in Ukraine has become a stalemate amid the heavy fighting in the east, especially around Bakhmut where the longest and bloodiest fight of the war has dragged on for more than 8 months.
Bakhmut is located in the eastern Donetsk province, one of four Ukrainian provinces Russia illegally annexed last fall. Currently, Russia controls around half of Donetsk, and Bakhmut is considered the key to Russia seizing the other half.
Officials in Kyiv say they are buying time to prepare for the counteroffensive by depleting Russian forces in the battle for Bakhmut. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that if Russia wins in Bakhmut, Putin could begin building international support for a deal to end the war that would include requiring Ukraine to surrender territory in the east.
Danilov told the Associated Press that the battle for Bakhmut proves that it is “extremely hard” for Russia “to conquer Ukraine by military means.”
Danilov also believes that Ukraine will ultimately defeat Russia. He told the Associated Press that Ukraine’s “strong inner spirit” will bring victory.
“That is something that always annoyed the Russians,” Danilov added.
