Footage of the moment a Russian tank was reportedly destroyed by Ukraine with a US-made Javelin missile has been shared online by “open source” citizen journalists.
The 29-second clip shows a lone tank, apparently moving through an open rural area, before a missile appears to shoot across the ground and punch straight through it. The armored vehicle is briefly consumed in flames before a mushroom-shaped grey cloud immediately rises into the air, while an orange-colored plume is pushed out in front as the missile tears through its target.
It comes amid further pledges from the U.S. and other allies to provide military aid to Ukraine “no matter the cost” to help the embattled country fight off Russian forces who invaded in February 2022.
Javelin anti-tank missiles are among the packages of military aid that President Joe Biden has provided in recent months. A Forbes report from December noted that the U.S. had provided a total of 8,500 Javelin missiles at that time.
The clip of the tank being destroyed was shared on Sunday by an account called OSINTtechnical [Open Source Intelligence Technical], which has some 709,500 followers. Open-source intelligence involves highlighting information that already exists somewhere within the public domain or bringing together disparate pieces of data to tell a story. The account holder’s profile says they are an analyst for CNA (originally the Center for Naval Analyses), an American nonprofit research organization “dedicated to the safety and security of the nation.”
Donetsk Oblast, a Russian T-80U takes a hit from a Ukrainian FGM-148 Javelin, most likely fired by the 21st Motorized Infantry Battalion. pic.twitter.com/ft8idtrdvn
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 28, 2023
The caption read: “Donetsk Oblast, a Russian T-80U takes a hit from a Ukrainian FGM-148 Javelin, most likely fired by the 21st Motorized Infantry Battalion.”
Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the claims, and the tweet did not reveal when or where exactly in Donetsk Oblast—a bitterly contested region of eastern Ukraine—the skirmish reportedly took place.
Newsweek has reached out to Russia’s Foreign Ministry and Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense for comment.
A further tweet posted a freeze-frame of the footage and circled the missile and the tank for clarity. Some Twitter commentators noted that copper is used to line the main warhead and said the orange smoke trail was created by the copper jet that pushes out from the weapon itself.
John Moore/Getty Images
It is not the first time that a Javelin attack has been caught on camera. Last month, Ukraine’s 81st Airmobile Brigade, part of the country’s Air Assault Forces, shared a clip on its Facebook page showing a soldier firing from a shoulder-mounted Javelin launcher and a Russian tank exploding.
In March, a video appearing to show Ukrainian soldiers destroying several Russian tanks with Javelin missiles went viral on social media.
The FGM-148 Javelins are made by American defense companies Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin. The two firms are among those who have recently been accused by former Pentagon officials of jacking up their prices amid increased demand in an alleged “price gouging” move that could hurt U.S. defense capabilities.