VIDEO: This is the First Confirmed Destruction Of a Russian Air Defense System – Dramatic video footage released this week shows for the first time that a Russian Tor air defense system was destroyed by Ukrainian strikes.
The video, which shows in great detail the gradual destruction of the missile system, even shows Russian soldiers desperately working to put out the fire.
The video, which was shared by the war-tracking Twitter account Ukraine Weapons Tracker, was recorded by a rotary-blade unmanned aerial vehicle and starts by showing the Russian 9A331MDT Tor-M2DT from above, functioning as normally.
Seconds into the video, the air defense system explodes suddenly, with the Ukrainian artillery that caused the damage barely even visible.
The first strike is followed by a second, which hits immediately next to the system, just feet away from Russian soldiers who were standing beside the vehicle attempting to put out the flames.
Soon after, the air defense system is seen completely destroyed, with thick black smoke billowing out from the top.
It is unknown whether any Russian troops operating the air defense system survived the attack.
In a post accompanying the video, Ukraine Weapons Tracker notes that this is the first documented example of the Tor-M2DT being destroyed by the Ukrainians.
“The first confirmed destruction of an esoteric Russian air defense system- the 9A331MDT Tor-M2DT, intended for use in Arctic environments,” the post reads.
“The SAM syste …