VLADIMIR Putin has withdrawn his £7million "city-destroyer" T-14 tanks from frontlines over fears they will be obliterated in combat.
The state-of-the-art military vehicles are thought to be Russia's most advanced war weapon to date but the former spy remains terrified Ukrainian drone aces will blow them up.
The embarrassing revelation was revealed by the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday, who claimed the Armata Main Battle Tank will not be deployed to Ukraine.
A statement posted to X (formerly Twitter) read: "This is highly likely due to the high costs and potential reputational damage of losing a ‘prestige’ vehicle in combat."
In response to the tweet, former British Army colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said the reason behind the tank's dismissal was because it is, in fact, "rubbish".
The chemical weapons expert compared the T-14 to "a 1940's Conqueror" - a notoriously unreliable British tank.
Yet the T-14 Armata supposedly has the capacity to reduce cities to rubble "in minutes", reports claim.
Thanks to an unmanned turret that's equipped with a powerful gun with a five-mile range, it's imagined to be one of the deadliest vehicle's on the battlefield.
The Russian's also claim it has a special stealth coating to make it invisible to enemy radar.
Furthermore, UV detectors provide instant warning of incoming fire, while a 125mm smoothbore cannon fires at a rate of 100 shots per minute.
It also boasts a fully autonomous turret that can rotate 360 degrees at high speed to hit back at threats in any direction.
In addition, the tanks have slat armour providing protection against high-precision anti-tank weapons and close combat weapons such as hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers.
Yet despite supposedly being deployed to the frontline since April 2023 ahead of an expected blitz by Kyiv’s forces, Ukraine has pushed back on such remarks and said it hasn't seen any T-14s in action.
Perhaps its no surprise that Putin has withdrawn the multi-million pound weapon, given the serious beating Russia's arsenal of heavy armour has already received.
The Russian President previously bragged that the T-90 was the "world's best tank," yet Ukraine has managed to destroy these systems with small drones and armoured vehicles.
In October, footage captured the moment one of the multi-million dollar tanks was completely obliterated by an anti-tank mine.
The dramatic video was taken during an operation near the Lyman region, when a Russian T-90 tank was zeroing in on Ukrainian forces.
Before the war, Russia was said to have 100 of the tanks - but at least two have been destroyed.
Back in 2022, Ukraine's Defence Ministry released footage of the burned-out husk of the same tank, with a large hole through the vehicle's tracks, and bent armour plating.
At the time, Ukraine claimed "the pride of the Russian tank industry" had been destroyed by a Swedish-made Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle rocket launcher which costs a relatively modest £18,500.
Since the start of the war, it's believed Putin has lost nearly all of the tanks he had when he started his brutal invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago.
Figures estimate the tyrant has lost almost 3,000 of the armoured vehicles since the war began.
