19 June 2023 , 05:20
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Russian soldiers have been filmed filling a tank with several tons of explosives and remotely driving it towards a group of Ukrainian soldiers, before it exploded in an enormous fireball.
The horrific new military tactic has been employed by the Russians just as Kyiv announced that it would be pausing its counter-offensive in the south of the country following heavy losses of armoured vehicles.
Terrifying footage from the Donetsk region showed a remote-controlled T-54 tank, stuffed full of six tons of explosives, creeping towards a trench full of Ukranian troops.
The Ukrainians open fire on the vehicle before the tank rolls over a landmine, which slows it down.
The tank hit a landmine and was then struck by an RPG (twitter)A soldier can then be seen firing a rocket at the armoured vehicle, causing it to explode in a massive ball of flames, the Daily Mail reports.
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Though the tank was an estimated 200ft away from the Ukrainian personnel, it is thought that the powerful shockwave caused by the explosion is likely to have killed a handful of soldiers.
Russia has reportedly employed the 'suicide tank' tactic twice before, but this is the first time the brutal weapon has been caught on camera.
Russian propaganda channel 'Romanov' claimed that Putin's forces bunged six tonnes of explosives into the tank and attempted to send it to Kyiv territory using an autopilot system.
However, the plan was thwarted when the tank exploded on a landmine approximately 100 metres from the front line, before being finished off by a Ukrainian soldier with an RPG.
Russians have reportedly used the 'suicide tank' tactic before (twitter)The Russian defence ministry has claimed to use the inhumane tactic on at least one previous occasion.
They posted footage of Russian troops cramming explosives into a tank before sending it towards Ukranian troops.
The new tactic comes a Putin doubled down on his decision to send troops into Ukraine, again claiming that the Ukrainian government is a neo-Nazi regime, despite President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish roots.
“My Jewish friends say that Zelensky is not a Jew, but a shame to the Jewish people,” Mr Putin said during a speech at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The Russian president also ramped up his aggressive rhetoric against the West, announcing that he had ordered a battery of tactical nuclear weapons to be stationed in Belarus and used in the event Russia's territory coming under threat.
He said that the move was about "containment" and to remind any of his adversaries who may be "thinking of inflicting a strategic defeat on us".
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When asked if he would consider using the weapons, he replied: "Why should we threaten the whole world? I have already said that the use of extreme measures is possible in case there is a danger to Russian statehood."
Putin went on: “Nuclear weapons are created to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state. But we, firstly, do not have such a need.
"Extreme means may be used if there is a threat to Russia’s statehood. In this case, we will certainly use all the forces and means that the Russian state has at its disposal.”
He added: "Just talking about this lowers the nuclear threshold. We have more than NATO countries and they want to reduce our numbers. Go to hell."