By Cameron Manley
May 5, 2024
Business Insider
Ukraine’s armed forces released a video claiming to show 42 destroyed Russian military vehicles.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry described the scenes as a “line to hell.”
Fighting has intensified in the Donetsk region in recent months as Russia pushes further past Avdiivka.
Ukraine’s armed forces claim to have destroyed 42 Russian tanks and military vehicles in the eastern region of Donetsk.
A video shared by Ukraine’s 58th Motorized Brigade appears to show the wrecks of the vehicles.
A caption accompanying the video reads: “It seems that in recent weeks, Putin’s generals have been making a large-scale sacrifice to their hellish gods, throwing new forces and equipment to their death.”
“The result is dozens of burned-out Russian tanks and armored vehicles,” it continues.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry reshared the video on X, formerly Twitter, writing: “A line to hell. Dozens of Russian tanks and combat vehicles were destroyed on a small section of the front in the Donetsk region.”
Business Insider was unable to independently verify when or where the footage was taken.
Fighting has intensified in the Donetsk region in recent months as Russia pushes to take more ground around the already-captured city of Avdiivka.
Russian forces are currently targeting the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar, just to the north.
Ukrainian officials believe that Russia is now intent on seizing the regions of both Donetsk and Luhansk in 2024 .
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank reported in February that Russia’s campaign around Avdiivka had resulted in significant losses to both equipment and personnel.
The report said that at that time, Russia had lost 8,800 armored fighting vehicles since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The director-general of the IISS also said in February that Russia had likely lost more than 3,000 tanks since the invasion began.
“To put that into perspective, Russia’s battlefield tank losses are greater than the number it had when it launched its offensive in 2022,” he wrote.
Dutch open-source intelligence website Oryx puts visually confirmed Russian tank losses since the start of the conflict at just under 3,000 .