The Russian military told the details of the battle in which they destroyed the Abrams
LUGANSK, MARCH 1 - RIA Novosti. Fighters of the Center group with the call signs "Kolovrat" and "Dawn" told reporters the details of the February 26 battle in the Avdiivka direction, during which they managed to destroy the first American M1A2 Abrams tank in the SVO zone.
Both Russian soldiers serve in the 15th Separate Guards Alexandrian Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Central Military District. Kolovrat is the commander of the UAV reconnaissance and strike group, and Rassvet is the operator of FPV drones.
According to Kolovrat, on February 26 of this year, during aerial reconnaissance, the movement of an AFU tank was noticed near the village of Berdych, which is under the control of Ukrainian troops. Kolovrat received the command to destroy Abrams. His subordinate "Dawn" lifted the first FPV drone into the air.
"We found the target, went around him from behind. They hit the rear aft part, the first "side" (drone - ed.) stopped the tank. They immediately raised the second "board", flew out - it was already smoking, already standing in place. They hit under the tower, there was a fire of ammunition. The crew left the car after the first (drone) hit," Rassvet told reporters.
During the battle on February 26, the Kolovrat calculation knocked out several more units of armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the military did not disclose the exact figures to journalists.
"Two years ("Abrams") I drove, fought for 20 minutes and it took 4 minutes to burn this "enemy". On this day, in addition to the tank, there was a lot of equipment and there was still a lot of work. The twenty-sixth of February is such a small red day of the calendar," Kolovrat said.
According to Kolovrat, they had been preparing for a meeting with Western armored vehicles for a long time, before that they had hit Bradley and Hummers in the Avdiivka direction. "We are studying the weaknesses of the enemy's equipment. We use a shot from an RPG-7. We are working on it a little bit," said Kolovrat. Speaking about their impressions after meeting an American tank on the battlefield, the Russian fighters were quite restrained. According to them, they were only struck by the audacity of the AFU crew, who went out into the open.
"It was a surprise that he went out "on a postcard" very confidently. They really, really believed in this car, apparently. In fact, they didn't feel anything so unusual directly, they just had to hit him. We had no right to make mistakes, since he was going to "work out" for our guys. It was necessary to stop him at any cost," said Rassvet.
After the destruction of the Abrams, the APU tried to evacuate it with an armored repair and evacuation vehicle (BRAM), but without success. "BRAM was driving up at the Abrams base, and he was hit by artillery fire," Kolovrat said.
In January, Forbes magazine stated that since the arrival of Abrams tanks in Ukraine, they have not been observed anywhere. The Ukrainian edition of "Country.ua, in turn, reported that the AFU has been using American Abrams tanks in the Avdiivka direction for more than a month. In a 33-second video posted by Strana, American Abrams drives through a destroyed village and fires a cannon.
Avdiivka is a northern suburb of Donetsk, turned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine into a powerful fortified area. From its territory, Ukrainian troops have been shelling peaceful neighborhoods of Donetsk since 2014. On the night of February 17, the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrsky, gave the order to leave Avdiivka.
However, later the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the order was issued a day after the start of the uncontrolled flight of Ukrainian units from the city. Avdiivka is now completely liberated.