Russia deploys ‘Terminator’ tanks as it ramps up Donbas offensive
Russia is believed to have deployed 'Terminator' tanks to a strategic city in eastern Ukraine, as it attempts to make a major breakthrough in its Donbas offensive.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said the vehicles were likely being deployed in Severodonetsk by Russia’s Central Grouping of Forces, which previously suffered heavy losses while failing to break through to eastern Kyiv in the first phase of the invasion.
The MoD said that while the city "remains one of Russia’s immediate tactical priorities", it cautioned that "with a maximum of ten Terminators deployed they are unlikely to have a significant impact on the campaign".
The BMPT tank support vehicles, nicknamed 'Terminator', are heavily armoured with four anti-tank missile launchers to help them survive urban combat.
They were developed by Russia to provide protection to battle tanks in the Afghan and Chechen wars, the MoD said.
Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the Defence Select Committee, said that "as poor Russian tactics have illustrated, tanks used in isolation are vulnerable on the battlefield".
"They are one part of a combined arms orchestra that determines any army’s combat effectiveness," he said.
However, Mr Ellwood added that although small in numbers, "if used correctly, the taking of BMPT to Ukraine could have a significant impact to seize and hold ground".
He also urged the Government to "think wisely about what hardware Britain might provide in response and what counter tactics should be adopted".
Russia is waging a major offensive in Luhansk, one of two provinces in Donbas, after the last Ukrainian fighters in the strategic port city of Mariupol ended their resistance last week.
The heaviest fighting is focused around the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, Vadym Denysenko, an adviser in the Ukrainian interior ministry, said on Sunday.
The cities form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-held pocket that Russia has been trying to overrun since mid-April after failing to capture Kyiv and shifting its focus to the east and south of the country.
The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Russian shelling and "heavy fighting" near Severodonetsk has continued, but the invading forces failed to secure the nearby village Oleksandrivka.
Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had pummeled Ukrainian command centres, troops and ammunition depots in Donbas and the Mykolaiv region in the south with air strikes and artillery.
Elsewhere, the Russian-appointed head of the occupied Ukrainian town next to Europe's largest nuclear power plant was injured in an explosion on Sunday.
Andrei Shevchik, who was named mayor of Enerhodar following Russia's occupation of the town, was in intensive care following the blast, according to Russia's RIA news agency, citing a source in the emergency services.
"We have accurate confirmation that during the explosion the self-proclaimed head of the 'people's administration' Shevchik and his bodyguards were injured," Dmytro Orlov, who Ukraine still recognises as the legitimate mayor of the town, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Mr Orlov wrote that Shevchik had been taken to the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol to recover from his injuries, and that he would be temporarily replaced as leader of the town.
