Drone video released by Ukrainian sources shows a group of what is believed to be Russian paratroopers dropping a thermite grenade down the hatch of one of their tanks. It's unclear why they did this, but it was most likely to destroy sensitive equipment inside of the vehicle that could not be manually zeroed out.

There is also a high probability that the armor was in an area where it would later become impossible to recover it, so they made the decision to destroy it to prevent the Ukrainians from recovering the armor themselves.

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Josh Brooks

Josh is an American writer and former USMC machine gunner with eight years of experience in ground combat arms throughout the GWOT. He is currently based in Texas and specializes in combat footage analysis and digital marketing.Follow Josh at OfficialJoshBrooks.com