Photo Shows U.S. Bradley After 'Direct Hit' by Russian Rocket—'Outstanding'

A photo posted on Telegram by Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar on Thursday purportedly shows a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle that withstood a direct strike from a Russian Grad rocket.

Maliar said Ukrainian soldiers who were in the Bradley Fighting Vehicle when it was struck by Russian forces all survived and were able to evacuate safely. The armored vehicle sustained some damage and is undergoing repairs, Maliar added. This has not been able to be verified by Newsweek.

Since Ukraine's counteroffensive kicked off last week, Kyiv has lost 16 Bradleys, of which five were destroyed and 11 were damaged and abandoned. This is according to open-source tracking group Oryx.

"The first photo depicts a Ukrainian Bradley following a direct hit from a Grad rocket [BM-21 Grad – a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher]," Maliar wrote.

"The second photo shows the crew of this Bradley successfully evacuating after the hit and further performing tasks on other vehicles," she added. "The damaged Bradley is undergoing repairs."

Maliar said Ukraine's 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade reported that, during a combat mission, a Bradley Fighting Vehicle was struck by a missile on its turret and subsequently caught fire.

The crew evacuated safely, and the "driver-mechanic" moved the Bradley to a safe position and extinguished the fire. One of the soldiers suffered a "mild contusion," Maliar wrote.

"This example proves that the outstanding combat survivability promised by the armored vehicle manufacturer is not just words. Bradley helps to save the most valuable thing – the lives of [our] military personnel. And steel can always be repaired," Maliar added.

"There is no vehicle that cannot be destroyed, there is a vehicle that saves lives."

Military publication The Drive reported this week, citing an unnamed U.S. official, that the U.S. is set to supply Ukraine with additional armored vehicles. It comes after an assessment that Kyiv had suffered high equipment losses in its push to recapture Russian-occupied territory.

On June 11, Russia said it had destroyed at least seven German-made Leopard tanks and five Bradleys over 48 hours as a counteroffensive from Ukraine kicked off.

Ukraine began its push to recapture Russian-occupied territory last week. Maliar said on Wednesday that Kyiv's forces were pushing forward in at least three directions. Ukraine has made advances in the direction of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, and in other areas.

One of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's top aides, Mykhailo Podolyak, however, said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces have yet to launch a counteroffensive "as such." This means that Kyiv has not yet kicked off its main effort.

The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine, said that Kyiv's ongoing offensive operations are likely "setting conditions for wider Ukrainian counteroffensive objectives that are not immediately clear and therefore represent the initial phase of an ongoing counteroffensive."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.

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