Video Shows Russian BMP Vehicle Hammered in 'Omega Unit' Javelin Strike

A Ukrainian special forces infantry unit has published a video showing the destruction of a Russian infantry fighting vehicle in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where counteroffensive operations are underway.

The footage from the Ukrainian National Guard's "Omega" unit, published on Monday and shared on social media, shows the moment a Russian BMP infantry fighting vehicle was struck by a FGM-148 Javelin ATGM near Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region, sending plumes of smoke into the air. It isn't clear when the video was filmed.

The Omega unit was created in 2019 by Ukraine's interior ministry to collect intelligence and carry out raids behind Russian lines, according to the Kyiv Post. The unit said in a post on its Telegram channel that its fighters had hit a Russian tank and BMP.

"BMP was destroyed, hit a tank, personnel in a building were destroyed, inflicted fire damage on the positions of the Russian Federation," the Omega unit said.

It comes as a counteroffensive by Ukraine to recapture Russian-occupied territory is underway.

The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Sunday said that Ukrainian forces reportedly conducted counteroffensive operations in six sectors of the front on July 2, including in Avdiivka, and made gains in some of these areas.

The think tank said the Russian Ministry of Defense and other Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces conducted offensive operations in the Lyman direction, in the Bakhmut area, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City front, in western Donetsk Oblast, on the administrative border between Zaporizhia and Donetsk Oblasts, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.

Ukraine has said it has so far liberated 130 square kilometers (50 square miles) in the south.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Mark Milley, told the National Press Club in Washington that the counteroffensive was "advancing steadily, deliberately working its way through very difficult minefields…500 meters a day, 1,000 meters a day, 2,000 meters a day, that kind of thing.

"War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real people are on those front lines and real people are in those vehicles. Real bodies are being shredded by high explosives.

"What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks, it's going to be very difficult. It's going to be very long, and it's going to be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about any of that."

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry by email for comment.

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