“Soldiers of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ambushed the enemy in a forest massif in Donetsk region,” the caption of the Facebook video reads. “During the operation, the SSO combat group burned one Russian combat vehicle and completely destroyed the crews of three Tigers.”
The video shows Ukrainian soldiers running through the forest during a counteroffensive in a separatist region of Ukraine that has been a key battleground for both sides since Russia’s invasion on February 24.
Over the weekend, nearly 370 civilians were evacuated from the area, according to the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
“After the ambush, the operators of the SSO of Ukraine began to perform other tasks without losses,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Monday. “We remind all occupiers that unauthorized walks through Ukrainian forests will always end badly for them.”
The page said that since the invasion began, 2,254 Russian tanks have been destroyed.
In recent weeks, Russia has deployed more of its Soviet-era tanks from storage as Moscow continues to expand its war efforts—a move Ukrainian officials have mocked online.
“Old Soviet tanks taken out of conservation by Russia - with no protection against modern weapons,” Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, tweeted last week. “And new Russian conscripts (also with no protection against modern weapons and a modern army - we’ve seen what they fight in). Perfect combination, doomed for success, I would say.”
Donetsk, where Monday’s attack was carried out, is among four regions in Ukraine where referendums are being held to decide whether the occupied territories will join Russia.
Moscow is hoping to annex Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, in what some said is designed to build Russian President Vladimir Putin’s case for a nuclear attack. The West has already said it will not acknowledge what it called sham votes.
Last week, Putin also announced a “partial mobilization” of about 300,000 reservists, a campaign that sent the nation into a tailspin as Russian men fled the country to avoid being drafted for the war.
