June 13 (Portal) – Russia’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday released video footage of allegedly German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley fighting vehicles being captured by Russian forces in a bitter battle with Ukrainian troops.
Portal was able to confirm that the vehicles featured in the video were Leopard tanks and Bradley combat vehicles, but were unable to independently verify the location or date of the footage.
The Defense Ministry said the armored vehicles and tanks were captured on the Zaporizhia front in southern Ukraine, one of the areas where Ukrainian forces were attempting a counterattack.
Two Leopard tanks, as well as two damaged Bradley combat vehicles, were seen in the footage, which was published on the ministry’s official channel in the news application Telegram.
The ministry dubbed the captured military equipment “our trophies” in a brief statement accompanying the footage and said the video showed soldiers from the Vostok (East) military group inspecting the equipment.
It found that some vehicles’ engines were still running, a testament to how quickly their Ukrainian crews had fled.
Portal cannot verify such Battlefield accounts.
Ukraine said on Monday its forces had recaptured a number of villages from Russian forces along a roughly 100-kilometer front to the south-east since the start of its long-awaited counter-offensive last week.
Unconfirmed reports from Russian military bloggers suggest that Russian forces may have recaptured some areas they ceded in recent days.
Reporting by Andrew Osborn and Felix Light Editing by Gareth Jones
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