Video footage, published on Facebook by the 79th separate airborne assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) shows one of its soldiers thwarting a Russian attack by destroying four armored fighting vehicles in a single engagement.
“The other day, the enemy made another attempt to break through the defensive formations of the Taurian paratroopers, deploying five units of armored fighting vehicles along with infantry for the assault,” the accompanying message reads.
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However, Ukrainian troops repelled the assault, “leaving the enemy's equipment burning in the field; most of the enemy infantry was killed.”
In the battle, the actions of junior sergeant Andrii G, call sign “Sedoy,” stood out. Using the Javelin anti-tank guided missile system, he destroyed four armored vehicles of the Russian army, which brought his personal tally of destroyed enemy equipment to 22.
“We understood that the enemy would most likely [attempt a] break through. We prepared. I was already at the point, waiting for the enemy,” said Sedoy.
Within a few hours, aerial reconnaissance detected the movement of two items of equipment, a tank and a BMP infantry fighting vehicle moving towards Sedoy’s location. The anti-tank gunner waited for the Russian equipment to come into range, then took out the vehicles: the BMP first and then the tank.
According to the paratrooper, less than 10 minutes later, three more vehicles were detected moving in the same direction.
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“I hit two more vehicles, destroyed them, and stopped the offensive. It was a significant offensive because five units of equipment – Holy moly! I destroyed four of them; one remained there which was finished off with other weapons,” said Sedoy.
In the video, a drone can be seen circling above the fifth unit of Russian equipment, and then some kind of ammunition, probably a grenade, falls directly on the vehicle, followed by an explosion.
The paratrooper highlighted the role played by drones in detecting Russian movement: “Aerial reconnaissance detects the enemy and informs about them the most, because the equipment cannot be heard from 2 kilometers [away]. The earlier you detect the enemy, the sooner you can act.”
A brigade spokesperson emphasizes that intense fighting is currently underway in the Donetsk region, as evidenced by Russian losses.
“During the first days of the new year, maroon berets have already destroyed or damaged 29 units of the occupiers' armored fighting vehicles with their loss of life amounting to more than 200 fighters," the message reads.
Recently, a Russian air defense team fired at its own paratroopers undergoing training at the Kuzminsky military training range in the Rostov region, killing two soldiers.
The incident occurred when a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun operator mistook the exercises for a landing by Ukrainian paratroopers and began firing on his own troops.
Similar incidents are not unheard of, as Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Tavria operational-strategic group, commented earlier on national television that fear has prompted Russian troops to “shoot at everything that moves.”
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