UK-supplied Challenger 2 tank destroyed in Ukraine, a first from Russian fire
- Tank was destroyed in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, according to a Russian-backed official
- The UK sent Kyiv 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive
A British-made Challenger 2 main battle tank was destroyed by enemy fire for the first time as Kyiv presses its counteroffensive against Russian troops in the occupied southeast.
A video of a destroyed tank near Robotyne, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region liberated by Ukrainian forces last month, was posted on social media Monday.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region which is under Moscow’s control, said the tank belonged to the Ukrainian army’s 82nd brigade.
He said the tank meant to have reached Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, but had instead been destroyed on what he said was the first line of Russian defence.
Video Rogov posted on Telegram showed what look like a tank on fire by a roadside with thick grey smoke rising from it.
A UK defence official who asked not to be named confirmed the tank – a model that Britain has used for almost three decades – was destroyed. It wasn’t clear whether the crew survived.