DRAMATIC MOMENT RUSSIAN SOLDIERS ARE WIPED OUT BY UKRAINE ‘DEATH RAY' WEAPON
This is the moment Russian soldiers were wiped out by a precision strike while trying to navigate through a damaged field in eastern Ukraine. Footage shared by Ukrainian officer Anatoly Shtefan showed three soldiers walking in between mortar shell craters when they are suddenly struck by a missile. As their peers attempt to pull them to cover following the attack, further strikes are fired, sending the soldiers fleeing.
Mr Shtefan, who shared the footage, tweeted: "Whoever comes to our land with a sword will die by the sword."
He added: "High-quality work of the unit in the eastern direction [of Ukraine]."
It is believed that the weapon used to strike the Russian soldiers was a Stugna-P, which is a Ukrainian anti-tank missile shooter.
The weapon can pinpoint targets and penetrate armour up to 800mm thick.
While the Russian soldiers were caught in the open and with little defences, such a small target is difficult to hit with a gun purpose-built to deter tanks.
One Twitter user, replying to the video, suggested the person operating the anti-tank weapon must be "the best anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) operator on Earth".
They said: "Whoever landed those three shots is, without a doubt, the best ATGM operator on Earth. He's practically sniping with it."
Other users, however, questioned whether the weapon used by Ukrainian forces was actually a Stugna-P.
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One said: "My guess is 100mm field gun with HEAT shell." Others speculated the weapon could be a Bayraktar, a deadly unmanned drone manufactured in Turkey.
Others took to calling it a "death ray" weapon, owing to its mysterious explosive abilities.
It comes as the British Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday morning that Russia is looking to "develop a new axis of attack" in the eastern Donetsk region.
After months of assaults on Bakhmut and the nearby salt mining town of Soledar, which have cost Russia and its mercenary outfit the Wagner Group thousands of lives, the MoD claimed Putin's Armed Forces were now looking to change tactics.
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An offensive is expected in the spring, with several hundred thousand newly-mobilised Russian troops reaching the front lines.
Their focus will be on the Donbas, which encapsulates Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, according to western analysts.
Despite the Kremlin maintaining that the "special military operation" in Ukraine is proceeding accordingly, Russian pro-opposition commentators have suggested that the top war generals are now focusing solely on shoring up Donbas instead of conquering the whole mainland.
Anticipation of this next wave of Russian soldiers has fuelled Ukraine's insistence on main battle tanks from the West.
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