The Russian Defense Ministry released video footage on Tuesday of what it claimed were captured German Leopard tanks and American Bradley Fighting Vehicles in a confrontation with Ukrainian forces.
The footage appeared to show two German-made Leopard tanks and two damaged American-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles. It was released on the ministry's official channel on the Telegram messaging application, according to Reuters.
Russia Says It Blew Up Leopard Tanks, US Military Vehicles
In a brief statement accompanying the video, the ministry referred to the captured military equipment as "our trophies" and claimed that the footage depicted personnel from its Vostok (East) military division inspecting the equipment.
Some of the vehicles' engines were still operating, indicating, according to the report, how rapidly their Ukrainian crews had fled.
Ukraine announced on Monday that its troops have recaptured a series of Russian-held villages along a 100-kilometer (60-mile) front in the southeast since launching its long-awaited counteroffensive last week.
Russian military bloggers' unconfirmed reports suggest that Russian forces may have recaptured some territory they surrendered in recent days. Per Big News Network, a video has emerged online purporting to show Ukrainian forces using a German-made Leopard tank with a Nazi emblem in their conflict with Russia.
Multiple pro-Ukrainian accounts released the video segment on Monday. According to the description, it depicts a German-made tank embroiled in combat in the contested former Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia. It is visible that the tank is discharging its main gun and employing a smoke screen.
The turret of the tank has presumably been painted with a "Balkenkreuz" by its personnel. Between the mid-1930s and the conclusion of World War II, Nazi German forces utilized various variations of the symbol, also known as the "beam cross."
The insignia was retired after the defeat of the Nazis, and the German military now employs a different-shaped Iron Cross to designate its equipment. Ukraine launched its long-anticipated counteroffensive against Russian troops last week, but according to Moscow and a number of Western media outlets, its forces encountered stiff opposition.
The Russian military asserts that it has destroyed a number of tanks and infantry combat vehicles supplied by the West that were intended to give Ukraine an advantage on the battlefield. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that Kyiv lost four Leopard tanks and dozens of other military vehicles on Saturday alone.
Putin Claims Ukraine Sees More Losses
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin made astonishing claims that Ukraine's armed forces have endured 10 times the losses sustained by his own troops during Kyiv's long-awaited counteroffensive.
The Russian president stated that Kyiv's large-scale counteroffensive began on June 4 and has been unsuccessful in all areas, claiming that Ukraine has lost over 160 tanks, 25 to 30 percent of which were provided by Western allies.
During a media session, he downplayed the impact of the war on Russia's armed forces, stating that he saw no need for additional mobilisation of men to fight in Ukraine or for martial law to be declared in certain regions of Western Russia that have been attacked.
In the first days of their counteroffensive, Ukrainian troops recaptured a total of seven villages encompassing 90 square kilometers (35 square miles) of eastern Ukraine over the past week, as reported by Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Mailar.
Russia's Defense Ministry recently claimed to have captured German-made Leopard 2 tanks and American-made Bradley infantry combat vehicles on the front lines. The ministry published a brief clip on its official Telegram channel that appeared to show Russian personnel inspecting the confiscated Western-supplied equipment seized from Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense reported that several of the damaged vehicles still had operational engines, indicating that the conflicts in which the vehicles participated were brief. In the meantime, Germany's Defense Minister acknowledged that the country will not be able to promptly replace the tanks it has supplied to Ukraine.
Berlin began sending sophisticated Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine earlier this year, following months of pleading from Kyiv for the heavy weaponry to bolster its counterattack against Russia.
