Russian soldier was paid £10,000 for ‘blowing up’ the arm of the German Leopard 2 tank that had recently been amputated

A Russian soldier who was paid nearly £10,000 for supposedly blowing up a Western tank recently had his arm amputated, casting serious doubt on the legitimacy of the story broadcast on state media.

Vladimir Putin has promised to reward his soldiers for destroying every German Leopard 2 tank and other major equipment supplied by the West.

Russia’s Defense Ministry posted a video on Tuesday showing Andrei Kravtsov sitting on a hospital bed and receiving a certificate of reward from Alexander Karelin – a three-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling – for destroying a Leopard 2 tank.

In the video, Kravstov says, “I didn’t go [to war] for the one million. I’m a patriot. I love my country.’

But it has since emerged that the same soldier showed up at the same military hospital outside Moscow on June 12 as Russian despot Putin presented awards.

On this occasion, Kravstov said that he lost an arm in the trenches during an offensive in the forest. Neither Putin nor the soldiers referred to the German tanks.

Vladimir Putin (pictured June 21) has promised to reward his soldiers for destroying all German Leopard 2 tanks and other important equipment supplied by the West

The Leopard 2 tanks were first seen in Ukraine earlier this month at the start of the long-awaited counter-offensive. And despite Russian claims, the earliest verified case of destruction of a Leopard tank is June 8.

Therefore, Kravstov would have had less than four days to be medically evacuated from Zaporizhzhia, where the tank was reportedly destroyed, undergo amputation surgery, recover and come to the hospital to meet Putin,” Agentstvo reports.

Most patients would usually take two days to recover enough to meet people after amputation surgery, while it is also unlikely that Kravstov would be allowed to meet Putin without the mandatory one-week quarantine period.

Moscow says its forces have destroyed a number of Leopards and US-supplied Bradley fighting vehicles since Ukraine launched a counter-offensive earlier this month.

The defense ministry said last week it had paid individual bonuses to more than 10,000 Russian military personnel since the start of the war in Ukraine – something Moscow calls a “special military operation” – for destroying or capturing Ukrainian or Western military units. supplied hardware.

It said the rate was 100,000 rubles for a tank and 300,000 rubles for an aircraft.

Karelin handed over the certificate for the private bonus and told Kravtsov, “These are great extra payments for those who do significant damage to the enemy over and above what the state does.”

The bonus was paid out of a fund set up by a private group of entrepreneurs, an example of how some Russian companies are seeking ways to publicly demonstrate their loyalty to the Kremlin’s military campaign in Ukraine.

Propaganda photos have shown dozens of destroyed Western armored vehicles, including 16 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and five Leopard tanks. Pictured: German Leopard 2s and US Bradley tanks

A Ukrainian MSLR BM-21 ‘Grad’ fires at Russian positions, near Bakhmut on the frontline in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on June 21

Ukrainian soldiers repair a Leopard 2 tank in Zaporizhzhya region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 21

Ukrainian artillery batteries fire on the frontline as clashes continue near villages recaptured by the Ukrainian army in Donetsk, Ukraine, on June 21

Russian state media on Tuesday cited the soldier’s award as a main story, but Kravstov claims he has no recollection of how he destroyed the tank.

“We moved under artillery fire and were attacked by tanks,” he told Komsomolskaya Pravda in commentary.

“I took a grenade launcher and fired. Smoke came out. I only found out in the hospital that it was a German leopard.’

Propaganda photos have shown dozens of destroyed Western armored vehicles, including 16 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and five Leopard tanks.

Russian bloggers have constantly rejoiced at photos of burnt-out Western tanks.

As questions arise over the legitimacy of the awards, Putin warned yesterday that his terrifying new Satan II missiles – capable of carrying 10 nuclear weapons – will be deployed for combat purposes in the “near future”.

The Russian leader threatened the West with his new Satan-II big-beast 208-ton nuclear apocalypse missile while speaking to military graduates at the Grand Kremlin Palace.

The giant missile – which can reportedly reach the UK in just three minutes and is known in Russian as Sarmat – has suffered embarrassing developmental delays. But Putin said launch pads for the “unstoppable” 15,880 mph rocket – the size of a 14-story tower block – will be put on “combat duty.”