[imagesource: Twitter / Ukraine Weapons Tracker]

All is not going to plan for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

His troops have shown signs of being woefully underprepared for the level of resistance they have encountered, and there’s no doubt he’s seen those videos of Ukrainians towing away Russian tanks and celebrating.

Let’s not forget the drone footage of a Russian convoy being ambushed and choppers being shot out of the air.

Now you can add another video to that catalogue of Russian catastrophe, with footage emerging earlier this week showing a Ukrainian BTR-4 (“an eight-wheeled vehicle roughly equivalent to a U.S. Army Stryker”) taking out what is likely a T-72 Russian tank.

More from Task and Purpose:

It’s unclear from the video but it appears to show two separate engagements that have been cut together into one clip, rather than one fight that involved an encounter with a Russian tank and an infantry fighting vehicle.

In what looks like a suburban neighborhood, the Ukrainian vehicle maneuvers up and down a city street, firing on Russian forces. The two engagements both occur at uncommonly close range, with the first against the T-72 appearing to result in damage, though the extent is unclear. The second looks to be an almost one-sided shootout with the Russian BMP, and in it we see the Ukrainian vehicle crew open fire, first at a high elevation, then the gunner walks the sights down before they drop suddenly and the rounds appear to impact just in front of, or even under, the Russian BMP.

Shooting from elevation is sometimes done in order to skip rounds underneath the vehicle to damage the ‘belly’. Other speculation online said it could be an attempt to impact the rear of the vehicle, where Russian troops are seen walking.

We may be in the midst of the first-ever TikTok War but footage like this is still remarkable:

#Ukraine: Insane footage of a Ukrainian BTR-4 in use in the vicinity of #Mariupol against Russian armour, damaging a T-72B3M and totally destroying a BRM-1K.

Never quite seen anything like this so far. pic.twitter.com/486rmcEI87

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 14, 2022

A YouTube version, if you prefer:

If you’re wondering why the letter ‘Z’ is painted on that Russian tank, read this.

Regarding the elevated shooting, the real explanation could be far simpler:

“You’ll notice he started engaging high, then medium, then there’s a quick jerk low,” said Maj. Mike Liscano, an Army officer with 20 years experience in the field and who served as both a tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle commander and is familiar with the armor shown in the clip.

“In actuality, he just overcorrected going down and he’s slowly walking the dog back up to fire center mass of that BMP up until we saw the internal combustion with those rounds hitting the engine and the engine exploding, confirming kill as you should in real combat,” Liscano said.

Another unnamed mechanised combat expert called the attack on the tank “a catastrophic kill” and said the tactic to take out the vehicle, rather than the troops on foot, was the correct one.

When the footage resembles popular video games like Call of Duty, it’s sometimes easy to forget that this is actually happening.

[source:tandp]