This is the devastating moment a Russian tank transporting a squad of soldiers is blown up by a Ukrainian missile.
The aerial footage, taken from a drone nearby, follows the Russian tank as it trundles through snow-covered grassland in an unspecified location in Ukraine.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a Ukrainian Javelin missile strikes the tank directly from above.
The armoured vehicle immediately goes up in a ball of flames, sending the Russian crew inside flying into the air.
Their charred bodies lie scattered amongst the burning wreckage.
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The video serves as yet another stark reminder that Vladimir Putin has consistently underestimated Ukraine’s resolve on the battlefront.
Twenty-two months since it invaded, Russia has about one-fifth of Ukraine in its grip, and the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) frontline has barely budged this year.
However, Ukraine has so far failed to secure a major win in its vaunted counteroffensive against Russia.
It’s ending year with disappointment on the battlefield, an increasingly somber mood among troops and anxiety about the future of Western aid for Ukraine’s war effort.
A crunch has come away from the battlefield. In Western countries that have championed Ukraine’s struggle against its much bigger adversary, political deliberations over billions in financial aid are increasingly strained.
Putin is playing a waiting game two years into a war that proved to be a costly miscalculation by the Kremlin.
He is wagering that the West’s support will gradually crumble, fractured by political divisions, eroded by war fatigue and distracted by other demands, such as China’s menacing of Taiwan and war in the Middle East.
The international political outlook could turn sharply in Putin’s favour after next November’s elections in the United States — by far Ukraine’s biggest military supplier and where some Republican candidates are pushing to wind down support for its war.
That election will determine the course of America and democracies the world over. The stakes could not be higher.
