Ukraine claims its first kill of Russia's 'Terminator' armored vehicle, believed to be one of Putin's most advanced weapon systems

A serviceman washes a BMPT Terminator armored fighting vehicle designed to support tanks as part of preparations for the Victory Day military parade, in Moscow, April 23, 2019.

Anton Novoderezhkin\TASS via Getty Images

• Images appeared to show Russia's "Terminator" armored vehicle after a direct hit.
• The "Terminator," designed to support armor and infantry units, can engage three targets at once.
• Russia has begun its new offensive in eastern Ukraine, according to one of Ukraine's military commanders. 

Ukraine claims to have destroyed a prized Russian BMP-T armored vehicle, nicknamed the "Terminator," in Luhansk.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, shared several aerial photos appearing to show the vehicle being blown up and destroyed on his Telegram channel.

He said that Russian propagandists had boasted about the vehicle and said it was impossible to destroy, and shared a clip from Russian state TV showing off the vehicle in the forest near the Russian-occupied city of Kreminna in Luhansk.

"So many beautiful words about the car being almost impossible to destroy….almost," Haidai wrote on Telegram.

 

The "Terminator" was designed to support other armor and infantry units and can engage three different targets at once using its four weapons operators.

Its weapons include twin 30 mm guns, four supersonic Ataka anti-tank missiles with a range of almost four miles, two AG-17D grenade launchers, and one coaxial 7.62 mm PKTM machine gun.

The vehicle was first designed in the late 1980s, and is made by Russian company Uralvagonzavod, the Russian military's leading tank producer. The Russian army purchased only 10 of the vehicles in 2017.

While impressive in its design, some Russian reports have suggested that the vehicles are more style over substance.

Forbes reporter David Axe noted that losing one of the vehicles would be an embarrassment to Russia, as the vehicles are media darlings often pointed to as proof of Russia's ability to still produce cutting-edge armor.

The single company of vehicles was deployed to Luhansk, where Russia appears to have just begun its long-feared latest offensive, Haidai said on Thursday.

Haidai said that Ukrainian forces have "repulsed a large number of attacks" there, as Russian forces have intensified attacks around attempts to move westwards from Kreminna.

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