Ukraine has deployed a number of captured Russian UR-77 Meteorit mine-clearing vehicles in the Bakhmut region to force a retreat of Russian soldiers, according to a report by the Hungarian Index news outlet.
The vehicles are from the Soviet era. According to battlefield intelligence, Ukrainian troops have managed to capture at least 13 of them, which they have repurposed as an offensive weapon to “literally pulverize the Russian soldiers” into retreat.
Several videos have been circulated online showing the Ukrainians deploying their UR-77s, whose launchers are capable of destroying entire buildings with a single shot.
The Russians have used the weapon across the Donbas region, as well as in Syria prior to the war in Ukraine.
The vehicle is equipped with a launcher and two mine-clearing line charges. In practice, a rocket deploys the charges in front of the vehicle, 90 meters wide and six meters deep into the minefield. This can detonate all mines in the affected area, but the explosions of the mine-clearing charges themselves are strong enough to be used in an offensive manner.
Ukraine did not have access to any such device before the outbreak of the war, so all UR-77s in the possession of Ukrainian units are captured vehicles.
