In a clip shared by Ukraine’s armed forces, a T-64 tank is seen to take on a column of Russian armoured vehicles single-handedly.

The footage was first shared on Telegram by Ukraine’s armed forces and then distributed to Twitter by Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) and researcher Arslon Xudosi (@Arslon_Xudosi). Here’s the video.

What’s happening?

As the tank catches the Russian column by surprise, it causes a flurry of uncoordinated fire until the other side realises where the tank’s explosive rounds are coming from. The crew of the Ukrainian tank then fired one more round at the column around 150m away, instead hitting a large area of woodland. In this case, it seems to have been a high explosive round designed for light armoured vehicles rather than anything capable of penetrating a tank’s hull.

As the lone tank swings its hull in the direction of the Russian convoy, it fires again, this time hitting a BTR-82, triggering return fire and a rollout to find the tank from the rear of the column. The tank and Russian vehicles continue to exchange fire, with one soldier firing an anti-tank missile, which misses, hitting a house instead.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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51 COMMENTS

  3. Seen footage of other ambushes where they expertly hit the front and rear and then take out the vehicles stuck in the middle at leisure. Pity the enemy escaped this time, though I’d read on Twitter in this engagement UKR artillery then caused some damage.

    • Hi Daniele, yes, feel the same. You would have expected this lone tank to take out quite a few of these lighter armoured vehicles. It’s looks easy down from the drone though.

      • Looking at it again, it is quite a sizeable convoy! Hopefully with more tanks becoming available there can be more hits!

    • Its amazing the just made a run for it, one tank vs a convoy! I guess as you say they’ve been hit before so running is the best strategy for survival.

    • Take out the front and rear vehicles then take out the remainder as you go – reminds me of a certain German Tiger 1 Tank Commander by the name of Michael Wittman…….

      • Yes, I’ve read of him often. Waffen SS Heavy Battalion 501 or 502 in Normandy with Tiger I recall. Ex Leibstandarte, vet of countless Russian front fights. I think he started on SPGs. One of the main reasons for his success was his gunner Balthazar Wohl, who could fire accurately while on the move.

        The Canadians got him with Fireflies I recall.

        • His grave is in the German cemetery in Normandy, much visited. I think his tally was something over 200 tanks before he was got by a tyro who had only fired 5 rounds in practice and never before in anger. Such is the luck of war.

          • Worth noting that the SS massively overinflated their kill counts for propaganda, current high estimates are about 130. Although even that has to be taken with a lot of salt as historians doubt the Nazi version of Villers-Bocage.

          • Indeed, I’ve seen a lot of claims that Wittman is way too over hyped, though I’ve not actually seen any numbers to back up the claim.

    • You can’t hit the front and rear of a column terribly easily when you are a single person (or in this case) tank engaging the column however.

      • Of course not, and I was not suggesting that in this case that they could, from that position only facing the bend to their front as vehicles move LTR away and their left side covered by houses. Was just talking generally of other ambushes shown on Twitter.

  6. Good to see countries investing in new kit to deter future Russian aggression.

    “The Polish Ministry of National Defence (MND) said on its website on 5 April that Poland would acquire 250 M1A2 SEPv3 MBTs, 26 M88A2 Hercules armoured recovery vehicles, and 17 M1074 Joint Assault Bridges, plus ammunition, logistics, and training packages.”

    https://www.janes.com/defence-news/land-forces/latest/poland-signs-contract-for-250-m1a2-sepv3-mbts

    “The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) has signed a technical agreement with Estonia, Finland, and Latvia to jointly develop a new 6×6 armoured personnel carrier (APC) under the Finnish-led Common Armoured Vehicle System (CAVS) programme, the Försvarsmakten (Swedish Armed Forces) announced on its website on 4 April.”

    https://www.janes.com/defence-news/land-forces/latest/sweden-joins-common-armoured-vehicle-system-programme

    • Poland has some 300+ T72 tanks. I’d wager this announcement will allow a good number of the T72s to be given to Ukraine.

      • And just in good time for a push back eastwards and maybe southwards. Hope Ukraine can take out some of the masses armour that entered Mariupol.

        • I’m surprise Ukraine hasn’t tried to take out the bridge that was built from Crimea to Russia. The bridge has been a major suppy route for Russia’s forces coming through from Crimea.

          • Russia has a lot of naval combatants in the sea of Azov and Black Sea, I’d be surprised if Ukrainian naval forces would be able to get close enough- as they’d be travelling all the way around from Odesa I guess…

          • I think a Ukrainian infiltration team would be better off, sneaking across the border to Belgorod, where Russian forces are regrouping, & then laying the landmines the Russian left in Ukraine. Replant them in the roads around Belgorod.

          • …yes I was wondering that too, and also about them not using their own new anti-ship missiles?

          • I think its just too far for them to target with enough accuracy to take it out completely. The Russians would likely repair small damaged within a day.

            One thing this conflict has shown though is Nato’s overall lack of low cost strike drones when Turkey is so far the only one to supply 50. Imagine they had 500 regularly topped up with hellfire missiles, there wouldn’t be much Russian armour left in Ukraine after a couple of nights.

        • Hmmm, careful with your wishes Q. I feel in a war of attrition or a straight full on battle mass vs mass Ukraine loses, even with Russian failures and incompetence.
          There is also Russian air superiority east of the Dnieper, though not air dominance.

          Rather than grand offensives I’d rather they continue with the tactics they are using for now, and continue going after the enemies supply lines. I’d like to see every railway in the enemies rear and locomotive obliterated.

          Tanks and armour can be dealt with by the ATGW.

          • Good point Don, I suspect the Ukrainians will re-equipping with donated (refubished and and upgraded) western systems when their war is over.

            They will want to be rid of all the Russian associated gear as fast as possible…

    • 250 M1A2 represents an extremely capable armoured force, enough to equip four Armoured Regiments at a push…

      More than capable of wiping the floor with the Russians, especially as we have seen the Russian utter incompetence…..

        • Let’s not paint them all with the same brush guys, someone’s 18 year old isn’t coming home…

          Thousands of young men on both sides are dead, along with thousands more civilians, thanks to a clearly crazy/ insane autocratic lunatic….

          • Agree, good point John, war chews up the young and normal people. The true enemy are the leaders and directors of aggression. It’s just a shame it’s not generally them that do the suffering.

        • I wouldn’t be surprised if they were trainers. It was fairly common for Spetsnaz to wear Soviet copies of adidas trainers.

        • Nikes or not, the poor soul appears to be engulfed in flames. Probably in enormous pain before he died. As John C says, below, let’s not paint them all with the same brush. Many are conscripts, with no choice over whether they live or die. Just Putin’s canon fodder.

    • Hard to know what he was wearing, or why. The one thing we can be sure of, though, is that that vehicle contains the dead bodies of young men sent to war by older men who did not share the risks and dangers.

  9. The Ukrainian tank is extremely well positioned, hull down with buildings covering it’s flank. The Russians took over a minute to locate it. Don’t get the Russian’s tactics though. Their infantry dismount and then, instead of taking the tank in flank, run straight through the ambush site. Shame the Ukrainians didn’t have a few well placed machine guns. I understand that this column is not advancing but rather taking part in the recent withdrawal from northern Ukraine. Maybe they were just in a panicked retreat?

  11. This same video also shown on YT states it was heavily edited before being released by the Ukrainians so it’s hard to get an accurate picture of the whole engagement.

    be interesting to see the unedited version ? if it is indeed true this one is the Kansas City shuffle version

    who knows?

    🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧

  12. I’ve watched this quite a few times to get the contact into my head! The footage is heavily edited and it would be interesting to see the whole thing from start to finish. However few points, the T64 is in a decent hull down position, with cover to his immediate left, and undulating cover to his front. He is effectively covering the bend in the road knowing any vehicles moving left to right will be moving away from him at the bend!

    His position does limit his frontal arc, to maybe 800 mils L&R, but that also restricts and effective enemy observation and fire! He must be aware of the distances, ranges to various locations and to his possible target so every advantage is with the T64 at this moment. However, he lets the convoy roll past, then engages, miss, then engage again! However his hit on the BTR was still a deflection from the ground! Fires again and misses again. Therefore I’m thinking the Ukrainian tankies are maybe not full time tankies (new volunteers or issue with optics)

    Big questions for me are, what happens in the edited bits? The Russkie lads didn’t respond aside from a few putting rounds down on likely positions, and a lone AT (RPG) fired from the left of the convoy, by a bloke on foot who must have ID the location, but which missed. Why no follow up, no comms to the others the T64 location, no flanking attack (was there Ukrainian infantry also in position we do not see, a T64 without infantry support?) fixed field defences or something or someone else there. The russkies reaction, from what we can see that is, does verify a lack of coordination between sub units and a lack of willingness to take on the enemy. The convoy just rolling through at a relatively slow speed, and the infantry just running past up the road confuses me. There must have been more going on than we can see, but as it stands it’s a very interesting snapshot of how the war is going for both sides. Ukrainian lads, ballsy and up for it, defending with limited numbers, Russkies taking losses and not really knowing what to do! Would love to know the full picture, but either way, ballsy call by the T64 lads.

    • My views too. Not only is it edited but also the drone eye view doesn’t give the viewer an idea of the elevation of the terrain. That could explain why the T64 overshoots, maybe there is rubble or a slope next to the road? That would explain why the hit appears to skip off the ground. With that amount of force available there is no way the T64 should survive but it appears to. The Russians just run through the kill zone and bug out. What do they think they are doing?

  13. Eh careful here, a lot of favorable imagery being pushed in western media circles. I doubt it was on its own, but we have seen Russian tanks crazily go it alone too so who knows, it is a very wierd conflict for sure.

  14. So first Big Pharma get rich and now the military industrial complex has got orders up the wazooo. Seems like all that money paid lobbying is finally paying off for them.

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