The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has released footage which it claims shows a Russian tank being destroyed by a drone which covered it with “molten thermite.”
The 26-second clip, attributed to Ukraine’s 30th Mechanized Brigade, was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by Kyiv on Friday.
Over the past few weeks a number of videos have emerged showing Ukrainian “dragon drones” dropping thermite charges on Russian positions. Thermite, a mixture of aluminum and rust, burns at over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit according to the Science Channel, making it twice as hot as molten lava.
In Friday’s video a Russian armored vehicle is filmed advancing, followed by an explosion as it strikes a mine or is hit by a Ukrainian rocket, leaving it damaged. A drone then approaches the vehicle from above and drops molten thermite, causing it to catch fire and become consumed by the blaze.
Truly unique combat footage: a “dragon” drone spews molten thermite on russian tank and destroys it.
📹: 30th Mechanized Brigade pic.twitter.com/gPPQ8mMmXz
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) October 4, 2024
It is unclear where the video was filmed and its authenticity has not been independently verified by Newsweek.
The Russian and Ukrainian Ministries of Defense were contacted by Newsweek for comment via email on Saturday outside of regular office hours.
One account of Ukrainian thermite drone use was published in September by Two Majors, a popular Russian military Telegram account with over 1 million subscribers.
It said: “The [Ukrainians] also got a new drone that drops a thermite charge. This has given us a headache.
“At first we were fiddling with nets so that the drone wouldn’t fly into the dugout, then with capes and blankets so as not to be seen in the drone’s thermal imager, and now we have to think of how not to get burned from the new drone.”
Stock photograph taken on 16 August, 2024 showing a destroyed Russian tank outside Ukrainian-controlled Russian town of Sudzha, Kursk region. On Friday, Ukraine released a video which it claimed showed a Russian tank being destroyed by molten thermite dropped by a drone.
YAN DOBRONOSOV/AFP/GETTY
On Saturday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense released a graphic claiming Russian had suffered 1,280 casualties over the past 24 hours, taking their total since the invasion began in February 2022 to 659,220.
On the graphic, the Ukrainians said that over the last 24 hours Russia had also lost eight tanks, 31 infantry fighting vehicles and 72 artillery pieces on the battlefield. These figures have not been independently verified by Newsweek.
Separately, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said Russia “will not hesitate” to resume nuclear weapons testing if they are first conducted by the U.S., though there are no indications Washington is planning to do this.
Ryabkov’s comments were the latest in a series of warnings from Russian officials hinting at nuclear weapon use which seem designed to discourage Western military aid to Ukraine.
Russian troops have been making slow and costly advances in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which President Vladimir Putin annexed to Russia in September 2022. According to Angelica Evans, a Russia researcher with the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think tank, Moscow controlled 98.8 percent of Ukraine’s Luhansk province as of October 3. Combined the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces makeup the Donbas.
