A Ukrainian drone was filmed dropping an explosive device through a hatch on a T-90M tank, causing the armoured vehicle to explode into a ball of flames.
The T-90M is Russia’s most modern and advanced battle tank, boasting sophisticated multilayered compound armour, along with a ballistics computer.
Vladimir Putin has even boasted that the “Breakthrough” T-90M is “the best tank in the world”.
The fearsome tanks have been deployed to the frontlines in Ukraine, as heavy fighting continues.
The video, published by Kyiv’s army, shows the moment a T-90M was wiped out by a drone, after appearing to get stranded in a crater.
Two hatches on the turret were visibly open as the drone approached its target. It was not clear whether the tank had already been abandoned by its crew.
After hovering a few seconds above the tank, the drone zeroes in on one of the open hatches, delivering its deadly cargo to devastating effect.
The munition explodes, causing a large fire to break out with flames enveloping the armoured vehicle.
Ukraine’s army wrote in a statement attached to the video: “Russia’s most advanced T-90M tank was annihilated using a Ukrainian FPV drone.”
The T-90M suffers from a major design flaw which has made it a relatively east target despite its technological sophistication.
Minor damage causes the turret to start spinning uncontrollably, forcing crews to abandon the tank.
In January, a Ukrainian drone captured a famous duel between a T-90M and a pair of Ukrainian M2 Bradleys.
The Russian tank was strafed by fire from the Bradleys’ 25mm cannons. Theoretically, the T-90M’s armour should easily have absorbed the impact of the small-calibre rounds.
However, the tank’s turret started to rotate non-stop in a clockwise direction after taking just a few hits.
It comes as Ukraine’s General Staff claimed Russian forces had suffered 1,310 casualties on Thursday.
According to Kyiv’s army, Russian casualties -including injured and dead – now number a staggering 694,950.
