Ukrainian Drone Pilots Dismantle and Destroy Russian Tank Equipped With Anti-Drone Shielding, Video

Ukrainian drone pilots have neutralized a heavily armored Russian tank, according to combat footage released on June 19.

The operation was carried out by the Apache Unmanned Systems Battalion of the 81st Slobozhansky Airborne Brigade.

The tank was outfitted with advanced anti-drone defenses, featuring extensive defensive modifications, including protective metal cages, wire mesh screens, and dense perimeter shielding designed to deflect overhead strikes.

Due to the reinforced nature of the protective structure, Ukrainian operators had to deploy multiple FPV drones to dismantle the shielding before delivering the neutralizing strikes, the Apache Battalion reported.

The high-value target was intercepted and isolated while operating in an open field, leaving it exposed to prolonged aerial surveillance and sequential attacks.

“Rolling out a tank covered in scrap metal in the middle of a field to show off? A brilliant plan by the occupiers that met the real skill of our pilots,” the battalion stated in a commentary accompanying the footage.

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The unit added that such heavily modified vehicles are viewed merely as high-priority targets, noting that several precision strikes successfully “demobilized” the hostile equipment.

This operation follows a separate tactical engagement where Ukraine’s 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade recently dismantled a multi-axis assault involving over 30 motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles near Mala Tokmachka.

Despite utilizing vehicles equipped with makeshift mine-clearing plows and mobile electronic warfare systems during a daylight raid, the advancing Russian columns were intercepted on the approaches to the settlement, resulting in 26 Russian soldiers killed and over two dozen vehicles destroyed.

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