Video: Ukrainian tank blows up a house being used as cover by Putin’s soldiers

A Ukrainian tank has blown up a house being used for cover by Vladimir Putin’s soldiers, and a Russian armour convoy has been ambushed by paratroopers with Javelin missiles, two dramatic videos have shown today.

Footage of the first incident, captured by a drone, shows a snowy battleground that was once the site of a suburban neighbourhood. Just one house remains standing in the community that has otherwise been levelled to the ground in the fighting.

As the scene is brought into focus, the tank – camouflaged slightly in the snow – comes into view. Its operators appear to be lining up a shot with its main turret.

Suddenly, a flash of light erupts from the tank as it fires off a round. A split-second later, smoke explodes from the nearby house as is is struck.

But the tank is not finished. As the drone pans to the right, and with smoke still rising from the house, it fires off another flaming shot.

The tank (right) fired at least four shots – three at the house and one at a second, smaller building across the road. It was unclear how many casualties there were

As a gust of wind blows over the scene, some of the smoke clears. A wrecked structure sits where the house stood moments earlier.

But the tank is not finished. Determined to clear it out of any Russian soldiers, the crew moves the turret slightly to the left, before firing off a third shot, causing another explosion that rips the frame of the house apart.

Next, the tank crew turns its attention to a smaller blue structure sitting across the road from the first house. It’s possible that the building is a small outhouse.

The tank fires off yet another shot, blasting the wooden building into splinters.

Both house and outhouse are almost totally destroyed, leaving little hope of survival for anyone who was inside when they came under attack.

The images were obtained from the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade ‘Kholodnyi Yar’ of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Monday, 27th February, along with a statement saying: ‘Unbelievable courage of the tank crews in Bakhmut.

‘The tank drives up close to the enemy and fires directly at the houses in which the Russian invaders are hiding!’ the group said.

It was not immediately clear how many casualties there were in the blasts. 

The dramatic war footage emerged as a separate video captured Ukrainian paratroopers taking out a Russia armoured convoy made up of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles – with the help of US-made Javelin missiles.

The footage begins by showing a Ukrainian soldier firing one of the anti-tank missiles from the middle of a field, which blasts off into the air, in the Maryinka region.

The images then cut to more drone-captured aerial footage, that shows several Russian war machines exploding on the battlefield.

With each blast, a small flash of a missile flying in is seen before it slams into the armoured vehicles, blowing them to pieces one by one. In one of the attacks, a terrified Russian soldier is seen fleeing moments before the missile strikes its target.

The dramatic war footage emerged as a separate video captured Ukrainian paratroopers taking out a Russia armoured convoy made up of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles – with the help of US-made Javelin missiles. Pictured: A vehicle is destroyed by a missile in a field

Pictured: The wrecks of several ATVs are seen clustered together, with one in the middle of the vehicle graveyard is still in flames.

Pictured: A massive explosion is seen as Ukrainian soldiers ambush Russian armoured vehicles

Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier fires a US-made Javelin missile towards Russian military vehicles

In another of the clips, the wrecks of several ATVs are seen clustered together, with one in the middle of the vehicle graveyard is still in flames.

Another shows a vehicle in the middle of a field being blown to pieces. Debris from the vehicle – including a turret – soars into the air as a huge fireball rises hundreds of feet into the sky, before the parts crash back down to earth.

The footage was posted to social media by the 79th Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces on Tuesday. 

‘In total, five enemy tanks and seven BMPs were destroyed in this heavy battle,’ the brigade said in a statement with the video. 

‘Having suffered serious losses in manpower and equipment, the enemy was forced to retreat. Together to victory! Glory to Air Assault Forces! Glory to Ukraine!’ it said.

While the clips show Kyiv’s forces having successes in the region, Moscow’s forces pressed forward today with their weeks-long drive to encircle Bakhmut, where the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces described the situation as ‘extremely tense’.

Russian troops, including mercenary fighters from the Wagner Group, are trying to cut the Ukrainian defenders’ supply lines to the city, scene of some of the war’s bloodiest battles, and force them to surrender or withdraw. 

That would give Russia its first major prize in more than half a year and open the way to the capture of the last remaining urban centres in the Donetsk region, one of four which Moscow claims to have annexed in what it calls its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

‘Despite significant losses, the enemy threw in the most prepared assault units of Wagner, who are trying to break through the defences of our troops and surround the city,’ Ukraine’s Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a statement.

An unnamed soldier from Ukraine’s 93rd Separate Mechanised Brigade, speaking on the Telegram messaging app as explosions boomed in the background, struck a defiant note: ‘February 28, the town of Bakhmut. The city is on fire, the enemy is pressing. Everything will be Ukraine…’

Russia’s state-run RIA news agency released a video clip which it said showed Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut. 

This video grab taken from a shooting by AFPTV shows an aerial view of destructions in the city of Bakhmut on February 27. Ukraine has said its forces are under pressure around the city

Pictured: Buildings damaged by a Russian military strike, amid their attack on Ukraine, in the frontline city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine February 27

Ukrainian service members ride a tank, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the front line city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine February 27

‘We are glad they are ours,’ says a man in the clip identified as a Wagner fighter, adding the jets helped them ‘psychologically’.

Ukraine’s military said Russia was shelling settlements around Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 but now lies in ruins after months of intense trench warfare.

‘Over the past day, our soldiers repelled more than 60 enemy attacks,’ the military said early on Tuesday, including on the villages of Yadhidne and Berkhivka just north of Bakhmut. 

A Reuters reporter who visited the area on Monday said he saw no sign of Ukrainian forces withdrawing and that reinforcements were arriving despite constant Russian shelling.