With Russia refusing to hold back its offensive against Ukraine, reports say that Russian troops have suffered considerable damage especially due to Turkish Bayraktar drones that have rained hell on Russian tanks and artillery.
Several videos have surfaced on social media showing the Turkish combat drone Bayraktar TB2 successfully striking the Russian army.
Late last month, Ukraine’s embassy in Turkey said that its forces had struck a Russian military convoy in the southern city of Kherson using Bayraktar TB2 drones.
Accompanying the post was a video purportedly showing the aftermath of the strike. Ukraine’s top commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi also posted a video of what appeared to be a convoy of trucks getting hit from the air — he said this was a strike against Russian vehicles by a Ukrainian, Turkish-made Bayraktar drone.
A video has now appeared of a Ukrainian trooper with a Javelin ATGM (portable anti-tank guided missile) and a destroyed Russian T-72B tank. He too dares Russians with Bayraktars and “Mr Javelin”.
The loose translation of what he is heard saying is: “Russians! We at the Ukrainian resort are happy to see you! Bayraktars and Mr Javelin will give you a big welcome, and they love your tanks. Come, there’s enough for everyone. With love from Ukraine.”
Ukraine claims it has already killed over 10,000 Russian soldiers and destroyed a huge number of Russian tanks, and other artillery, even though the numbers have not been verified by any third party so far.
Perhaps buoyed by this success, the drone maker Baykar claimed on March 12 that the first prototype of its newest combat drone, officially called the National Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle System (MIUS), has entered the production line.
“A larger and more agile fish has entered the production line three and a half years later,” Selçuk Bayraktar, the chief technology officer (CTO) at Baykar, tweeted.
He was referring to the time when Baykar began producing its iconic combat drone ‘Akinci’, also known as “the flying fish”. The UCAV had completed a 16-minute maiden flight on December 6, 2019.
