Ukraine Mocks Russians With Video of Tumbling Troops After Tank Mishap

A Russian tank's gun barrel is purportedly seen knocking multiple Russian soldiers off the top of a nearby armored vehicle in a video shared online by Ukrainian officials.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense shared a video of the tank mishap to Twitter on Friday, while mocking the Russian military by suggesting that incompetence from its own tank operators represented the "biggest threat" to Russian troops.

"The biggest threat to mobilised russian infantry are mobilised russian tankmen," the ministry commented while tweeting the 52-second video.

The clip, accompanied by an upbeat, silly soundtrack, as well as a laughtrack, shows what is purportedly a Russian tank maneuvering between two armored vehicles.

As the tank moved to pass one of the vehicles, its protruding gun barrel is positioned to pass over the top of it. Multiple soldiers sitting on top of the vehicle do not react before the gun barrel slowly knocks them off.

One of the fallen troops appears to be injured and is seen having difficultly getting up, while the others do so quickly and move along, running away from the vehicle at the end of the video.

The Russia-Ukraine war is now in its 12th month. It is not clear when or where the tank video was recorded. Newsweek has not independently verified the authenticity of the video.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.

Friday was far from the first time that Ukraine has attempted to ridicule the Russian military by sharing unflattering videos during the war, with incidents involving tanks being a recurring theme.

Last month, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense shared to Twitter a video purportedly showing a Russian tank being transported by train tumbling off and landing upside down.

"Not that we are complaining," the ministry commented alongside the video. "But in the future, we ask that the Russians be more careful when unloading military equipment. And to remember that every armored vehicle is potential lend-lease equipment for #UAarmy."

The video was accompanied by the sounds of "Yakety Sax," also known as The Benny Hill Show theme song. It was unclear when and where the video was recorded.

Sharing videos that appear to ridicule Russian tank mishaps has not been the exclusive domain of the Ukrainian military.

In September, a popular video posted to the Calibre Obscura Twitter page showed what was purportedly a Russian tank comically crashing into a tree while fleeing battle.

The video, which also uses "Yakety Sax" for musical accompaniment, shows the purported Russian tank driving down a street before spotting what is said to be a Ukrainian soldier.

Russian soldiers on the outside of the tank are then seen jumping into the street, while the tank continues down the road before swerving and crashing into the tree.

The Ukrainian military as of Friday claimed to have destroyed a staggering 3,128 Russian tanks over the course of the war, according to a Facebook post from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.