A video shared online by the Ukrainian military showed a soldier taking out a Russian tank using a U.S.-made Javelin missile.
The clip was originally shared on Sunday evening by the official Facebook page of Ukraine’s 81st Airmobile Brigade, part of the country’s Air Assault Forces. It begins with a shot of a soldier firing from a shoulder-mounted Javelin launcher, before cutting to an overhead drone shot, which captures the explosive results as the missile hits a Russian tank. It is unclear based on the post where the strike took place, though the 81st brigade is headquartered in Donetsk, a region in eastern Ukraine that has been the site of intense conflict throughout the Russian invasion.
“Another short story about a Russian tank that lost a game of catch-up to a Ukrainian rocket,” the post read, as translated by Google software. “And we’re on the hunt.”
Javelin anti-tank missiles are among the numerous rounds of military hardware that the U.S. has provided to Ukraine to help combat Russian forces that began invading in February 2022. As of early last month, the U.S. had delivered around $30 billion in hardware to Ukraine, according to a Department of Defense (DoD) report on the 33rd round of aid, which was valued at around $400 million. A Forbes report from December noted that the U.S. had provided a total of 8,500 Javelin missiles at the time.
Despite pushback from some Republicans who oppose continued aid, President Joe Biden has affirmed on multiple occasions that the U.S. will continue to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
“When Russia invaded, it wasn’t just Ukraine being tested,” Biden said during a speech in Poland just before the one-year anniversary of the invasion. “The whole world faced a test for the ages. Europe was being tested. There should be no doubt. Our support for Ukraine will not waver. NATO will not be divided. And we will not tire.”
The video shared on Sunday is not the only clip of Javelin missiles used in Ukraine that has circulated online recently. On Thursday, Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade posted a video to Facebook showing marines using Javelins to take out multiple tanks in one column near the Donetsk village of Vodyane. In the clip, one of the tanks attempts to return fire before it is struck a second time and put out of commission. Another tank can be seen catching fire and eventually exploding as a result.
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