The State Border Guard Service announces that Ukrainian defenders managed to destroy 9 tanks, 2 armored vehicles, and 3 BM-21 “Grad” rocket launchers.
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“Russian forces launched one of the largest tank breakthrough attempts in recent months,” the service stated. “Border guard officers from the ‘Phoenix’ unit, in cooperation with neighboring units, thwarted the enemy attack.”
The Ukrainian side noted that dozens of Russian soldiers were killed or wounded during this operation.
“All that ‘grandeur’ of armored vehicles was left burning in the fields in the Donetsk region and along the forests,” the Border Guard Service statement said.
In a video published by the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, as if in a game, Ukrainian drones destroy enemy armored vehicles and Russian soldiers on motorcycles one after another.
According to open-source analysts, videos of the clash show that some Russian T-72B3 Model 2022 tanks were equipped with the “Arena-M” active protection system, although it remains unclear how many vehicles had it.
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“Arena-M” is designed to detect and intercept approaching anti-tank weapons and was reportedly modified to neutralize first-person view (FPV) drones. However, even this improvement did not prevent Ukrainian units from stopping the armored forces’ offensive.
The three destroyed BM-21 “Grad” systems provided additional powerful firepower that Russia planned to use to support the offensive.
“Grad” is one of the most widely used multiple launch rocket systems in the world. Mounted on a Ural-4320 truck, it has 40 tubes for 122 mm rockets and can fire a full salvo in approximately 20 seconds.
Depending on the ammunition, “Grad” can hit targets up to 40 kilometers away.
It was previously reported that soldiers of the “Phoenix” unit of the Ukrainian State Border Service also destroyed a Russian “Buk-M3” anti-aircraft missile system in the Donetsk region. Such a system costs about 50 million dollars.
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