Russians Ambushed Near Bakhmut: T-90 Tanks Knocked Out in Yet Another Failed Assault

A Russian army attack led by at least a half dozen of the Kremlin’s top tank the T-90 “Breakthrough” aiming to recover tactically important terrain near the city Bakhmut seemed likely to have failed badly on Aug. 14, with Kyiv forces claiming the destruction of at least a dozen Russian combat vehicles in a series of brutal artillery ambushes.

The Russian assault deployed two armored columns, each led by three heavy T-90 tanks and trailed by 8-10 lighter infantry fighting vehicles, and aimed at high ground overlooking Klishchiivka and the neighboring village Andriivka, Ukrainian military information Telegram channels said.

Drone video posted by the usually reliable Ukrainian military blogger OSINT (URI) showed the Andriivka sector column being shot to bits in a series of accurate shell strikes.

Skilled Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) gunners using NATO-standard howitzers lured the Russian attack formation into a kill zone before hitting it while it was moving, he said.

The shell ambush geolocated to the eastern approaches of Andriivka village destroyed at least three T-90s, one MTLB light armored vehicle, and one BMP infantry fighting vehicle, a later OSINT report said.

According to the military blogger Tom Cooper, citing Russian sources, as few as three Russian infantry fighting vehicles, from the Klishchiivka and Andriivka fights combined, made it back to Russian lines. All the T-90s were knocked out, he said.

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Putin said it had been deployed "in a non-nuclear hypersonic configuration" and said that the "test" had been successful and had hit its target.

Ukrainian official sources reported failed Russian armored attacks at both locations but did not specify Russian losses.

The T-90 Is Russia’s latest model tank currently used in the field in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesmen have billed the vehicle as superior to Western first-line tanks in firepower, and comparable to them in armor and defense systems.

A relatively rare and expensive tank by Russian army standards, the T-90 has fought in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s Feb. 2022 full-scale invasion.

The twin battles in the Klishchiivka sector came some four weeks after AFU units occupied the high ground in the vicinity and then retreated to catch counter-attacking Russian troops in an ambush. Infantry from the AFU’s 80th Air Assault Brigade used small arms, grenades and mortars in the June 25 ambush.

Video showed at least eleven Russian paratroopers killed or wounded in the two-minute engagement.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar on Monday said Ukrainian forces had recaptured a clutch of territory around the eastern war-battered town of Bakhmut but made no major advances on the southern front.

Russia countered saying its forces were improving their positions in the eastern region of Kharkiv and holding Ukraine's forces at bay further south.

Kyiv launched a counteroffensive against Russian troops in June after stockpiling Western weapons and building up offensive infantry units but has conceded that progress has been slow.

“Another three square kilometers (1.1 square miles) have been liberated (around Bakhmut). In total, 43 square kilometers around Bakhmut have been liberated" since the offensive began, Maliar told state television.