Forbes reported that on September 5 (local time), under the cover of smoke, a Ukrainian tank team carried out a daring mission in a tunnel in Selydove, stealing a Russian T-72.
There is a tunnel on the eastern edge of the town of Selydove in eastern Ukraine, just south of Pokrovsk. Pokrovsk is an important Ukrainian stronghold. It has become the focus of fierce fighting.
This is not the first time Ukrainian forces have captured an intact and abandoned Russian T-72. In April, soldiers from the 12th Azov Brigade drove a T-72 across no-man’s land to the safety of Ukrainian forces near Terny.
Selydove is now an extremely dangerous place as the Russian army is approaching, aiming to encircle Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian tank crew towed the T-72 tanks away with their own T-64s.
A drone from Ukraine’s Kara-Dag Brigade tracked the T-72 as it emerged from the tunnel and lay amid the rubble on September 4. The armored, camouflaged Russian tank fired at least one bullet. Then, shockingly, three crew members jumped out of the 46-ton tank.
It is not yet clear why the Russian soldiers abandoned the intact T-72. It is possible that the vehicle had some kind of technical malfunction or engine problem.
