Video appears to show Ukrainian soldiers approaching and stealing a supercharged Russian tank.

• Footage appears to show Ukrainian soldiers stealing an advanced Russian tank.

• The tank was upgraded with electronic warfare equipment, but Ukraine said it was still able to hit it.

• The Ukrainian military said the tank “now works for the defense of Ukraine.”

A new video claims to show Ukrainian soldiers stealing an advanced Russian tank and driving off with it.

The nighttime video, shared by Azov’s 12th Assault Brigade, shows soldiers approaching the vehicle and then leaving. The brigade said its soldiers captured the T-72B3M tank and brought it back to their own camp.

It is unclear whether any Russian soldiers were inside the tank when it was allegedly captured.

Broadcast footage shows a column of Russian vehicles moving across fields and being hit by Ukrainian drones and weapons. The T-72B3M appears to have been part of this column.

The brigade also shared images of soldiers standing next to the tank, apparently after its capture. The tank was captured near the village of Terny in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military said the brigade captured the T-72B3M, which was first used in 2017. It said the vehicle had been upgraded with “a combination of several electronic warfare systems”, designed to protect it from Ukrainian drones.

But he said drone operators from Ukraine’s 60th Mechanized Brigade were still able to strike the tank using a drone “with a predefined autonomous guidance system.”

“The captured tank now serves in the defense of Ukraine and helps the army destroy the invaders,” the statement added.

Despite Ukraine’s alleged successes, having this Russian electronic warfare system used on the front lines could cause it major headaches.

The two countries are in a race to outdo each other when it comes to drones and jamming systems, as Business Insider’s Nathan Rennolds previously reported.

Azov’s 12th Assault Brigade said the tank’s capture was part of a broader victory against a Russian assault.

He said Azov soldiers, as well as other Ukrainian brigades, had information that a Russian armored column was on the move.

Fifty Russian soldiers were killed, while others fled and abandoned their equipment. He also said Russia had lost 11 pieces of equipment, without specifying what it was.

Weapons trackers and experts say Russia lost far more tanks than Ukraine in the conflict.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies said in February that Russia had lost more than 3,000 vehicles since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

But he added that Russia would likely be able to maintain its supply for two to three years by removing old tanks from storage and producing new ones.

Ukrainian soldiers also use tanks captured or abandoned by Russian troops. This includes Ukrainian troops using T-80 tanks captured from an elite Russian armored unit during the battle for the eastern town of Bakhmut last year.

War analysts say Russia has recently increased the scale and number of its mechanized attacks, perhaps hoping to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses before additional help arrives from the West.

Ukraine is severely lacking in artillery and ammunition, making it more difficult for it to attack Russia and hold ground.

Ukraine still managed to stop a large-scale mechanized attack last month, which war analysts say is a sign that Ukraine can still make significant progress on the battlefield if its forces are “properly equipped”.

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