Ukraine Touts Drone Attacks as Russia Abandons Tank Near Avdiivka: Video

New footage appears to show Ukrainian strike drones forcing a Russian tank crew to abandon their vehicle close to Avdiivka as Moscow's onslaught on the Donetsk town nears its fourth month.

"Near Avdiivka, the Russians opened fire from a tank," Serhii Sternenko, a Ukrainian activist raising money for Kyiv's drones along the front lines, wrote in a post to social media platform X on Tuesday.

A Ukrainian drone then struck the Russian tank, Sternenko said, and Moscow's troops evacuated the vehicle after attempting to carry on with operations against Kyiv's fighters. The clip shows a snow-covered tank firing before it gets struck, and soldiers leaving the still-intact vehicle.

The footage has been attributed to Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade, which has spent months fighting around Avdiivka since Russia launched its offensive on the Ukrainian stronghold on October 10.

Newsweek couldn' independently verify the clip, and has reached out to the Russian defense ministry and the 47th for comment via email.

Ukraine frequently publishes combat footage showing its fleet of drones in action against Russian troops in hotspots along the frontlines. In late December, Kyiv's military shared a clip appearing to show a cheap Ukrainian drone forcing the crew of an advanced Russian T-90M tank to bail out of the prized vehicle. The video was also recorded by the 47th.

"A drone cannot always destroy a tank," Sternenko said. "But you still need to hit tanks with drones."

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has amassed a "drone army," developing new airborne vehicles and fundraising for more. The drones cover nearly every aspect of the fighting, from helping out with reconnaissance to suicide drone strikes and guiding artillery fire.

Kyiv's fighters frequently deploy kamikaze drones to target Russian armored vehicles and even heavy main battle tanks. The explosive drones are inexpensive, often using commercially bought parts, and can pack a punch against an enemy's vehicles or its personnel.

Drones have been deployed extensively by both sides around Avdiivka as Russia's costly assault progressed. In the initial waves, Russia lost a slew of armored vehicles and tanks before switching to more infantry-led attacks.

The U.K. defense ministry said on Monday that Russian ground forces in Ukraine had lost around 365 main battle tanks since early October, as well as 700 armored combat vehicles. In mid-January 2024, Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukraine's Tavria grouping of forces covering Avdiivka, shared an image appearing to show a snapshot of Russian military vehicles littering the fields around Avdiivka.

There are "hundreds of units of knocked-out Russian equipment" along the front line close to the town northwest of the regional capital, Donetsk City, Tarnavskyi said.

The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday it had "repelled" 32 attacks around Avdiivka and the village of Marinka, southwest of Avdiivka. Russian forces took control of Marinka in late December.

Russia's defense ministry didn't refer to Avdiivka in its daily update on Tuesday, but said Ukraine had lost up to 310 fighters, two tanks and three infantry fighting vehicles along the Donetsk frontline covering Avdiivka.

Russian forces "marginally advanced" on the southeastern outskirts of Avdiivka, the U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said on Monday.

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