Russia military chiefs are being mocked for celebrating blowing up a German-supplied Leopard 2 tank – when in fact the destroyed a combine harvester and self-propelled sprayer.
Military experts have described the botched bombing as not an army tank but a John Deere combine harvester and a self-propelled John Deere sprayer.
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Leading the mockery was head of Wagner private army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who used the blunder to criticise the incompetence of Putin’s army. The Russian defence minister described a video as 'footage of the destruction of foreign armoured vehicles, including Leopard tanks'. However, military analysts there were no tanks in the field only farm vehicles.
The Russian-backed Telegram channel, The Military Informer, said: "We do not want to state anything, but the vehicles in the footage published by the Russian Ministry of Defence do not resemble any tanks at all in their silhouette.
"The silhouettes most closely resemble combine harvesters. This is evidenced by the characteristic high mounted discharge augers (pipes), which are clearly not guns due to their location. Also the 'tanks' do not show any signs of turrets."
The low quality footage was released online through the Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti shows a number of vehicles in an open field, one of which is then targeted and destroyed by a missile. The second shows an indiscernible object also blown apart by a missile.
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