Russian Armored Vehicle Drives Over Own Troops Before Exploding: Video

A Russian armored vehicle has driven over several of its own troops before exploding, new footage appears to show, in what looks to be the latest mishap by Moscow's forces in Ukraine.

The clip, posted to the Telegram messaging app by Ukraine's "Kraken" specialized unit, appears to show a Russian BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) quickly reversing and turning, running over several soldiers lying on the ground. Some scramble to move out of the vehicle's path before it moves away from the scene.

The video then cuts to a wider angle, showing the vehicle exploding. It is not clear what caused the fireball in the brief clip, or where it was filmed.

Newsweek could not independently verify the details of the video and has reached out to Ukrainian and Russian military officials for comment via email.

Russia has sustained heavy equipment losses throughout its near 20-month-long invasion of Ukraine, including in its costly assault on the Donetsk town of Avdiivka this month.

On Monday, Ukraine's General Staff said Russia's military had lost 22 armored personnel vehicles (APVs) in the past 24 hours, bringing Kyiv's tally of Moscow's total APV losses to 9,653. Russia does not separate out its armored vehicle losses, but said on Sunday that Ukraine had lost 12,869 tanks and other armored combat vehicles since February 2022. The battlefield statistics provided by each side cannot be independently verified.

Between the start of all-out war in February 2022 and the beginning of October 2023, Russia lost a confirmed 1,055 BMP-2 IFVs, according to Dutch open-source intelligence outlet, Oryx.

Meanwhile, Russian troops continue efforts to surround the eastern town of Avdiivka, but Ukrainian soldiers are "causing the enemy significant losses" and holding their defensive lines, Kyiv's General Staff said on Monday.

Fighting is "particularly intense" around Avdiivka, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Sunday. There have been "numerous Russian attacks" around the town," he said, adding: "But our positions are defended."

Avdiivka has been a problem for Russia since its proxy forces rose up in Donetsk in 2014 and Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine. In nine years, Kyiv's military has had the time to build up the town's defenses and it is "very difficult to displace them," Marina Miron, a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of War Studies at King's College London, U.K., previously told Newsweek.

Taking control of Avdiivka would be a significant strategic and symbolic victory for Russia, but Western analysts are skeptical that Moscow's troops will have the resources to do so in the near future.

Yet Russia is "funneling additional forces" into its fight for Avdiivka after failing in a "renewed push" last week, according to the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War.