Ed Ram/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
- A video shared by Ukraine's military shows a US-made Bradley fighting vehicle pummeling a Russian T-90M tank with its chain gun.
- In the video, the Bradley's appears to overwhelm the T-90M, which Putin called "the world's best tank," with fire.
- The footage appears to be a new angle of a fight that was previously captured in another video.
A new video captures the moment one of Ukraine's US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles overwhelms a top Russian T-90M tank with chain gun fire from its 25 mm cannon.
The intense battle between a combat vehicle first fielded decades ago and a relatively new tank praised by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the best highlights how valuable Bradleys can be on the battlefield.
The Defense Ministry of Ukraine posted the video online Thursday, attributing it to the 47th Mechanized Brigade fighting in Stepove, a village outside Avdiivka in northeastern Ukraine.
In the video, a Russian T-90M tank takes constant, unrelenting fire from a Bradley IFV. The Russian tank is seen moving slowly, possibly trying to find a better fighting position or a way to navigate out of enemy fire and retreat.
Business Insider was unable to independently verify the details of the defense ministry video.
Open source analysts identified the weapon used as the Bradley's M242 25mm Bushmaster chain gun, while expert war watchers noted the video shows IFVs can successfully engage with and severely damage even Russia's modern main battle tanks.
The new video follows another that was shared last week that appears to show a different view of the fight, including two Bradleys taking on the T-90M. That footage shows the tank spinning out of control while on fire shortly after the attack.
That footage also shows the T-90M's crew abandoning it. The wounded tank was finished off by a first-person-view (FPV) drone attack.
Russian media touted the incident as showing "the wonders of survivability" for the T-90M, particularly because the crew survived. The crew of any other vehicle "in such a situation would be doomed to certain death," one Russian outlet said, calling the fight a clear loss for the Bradley since it didn't kill the tank crew.
While the battle speaks to the T-90M's defenses, especially considering that it seemed to take many of the rounds directly to the front armor and keep going, something not all armored vehicles can do, it is also a display of the capabilities of the Bradley.
When the US first sent Bradley IFVs to Ukraine, a Pentagon spokesman told the media it is "not a tank, but it's a tank killer." And in this fight, per the videos, it looks like the Bradley gave one of Putin's top tanks a beating.
Ukraine received its Bradleys — heavily armed troop carriers used by the 47th Brigade — last year and quickly made use of them on the battlefield. Ukrainian soldiers who fought in Ukraine's 2023 summer counteroffensive spoke highly of their survivability and strengths. And they appear to still be making an impact.
Putin has previously touted the Russian T-90M as "the world's best tank," something Ukraine directly called into question with the video of the recent fight.
"It can be said today that the T-90M Proryv is the world's best tank," the Russian leader said last summer, according to state media. "As soon as it approaches positions, no chance is left for anyone or anything," he added. "It fires to a longer range and more accurately. It also has better protection."
The recorded fight was only one battle in a much larger conflict, but the outcome undermines that high praise.
It's unclear though if the loss is on the crew or the weapon, or if it was merely outmatched. Russia has deployed poorly trained troops, but it has also oversold other systems, such as its supposedly unstoppable Kinzhal missiles that have been shot down by US-made Patriot batteries.