Dramatic vid shows panicking Russians blow up their OWN armoured convoy with gunship chopper in Kursk as Putin scrambles
DRAMATIC video shows the moment a panicking Russian helicopter gunship crew blew up their own convoy.
Vladimir Putin's armed forces are scrambling to halt the Ukrainian advance into Russia after Kyiv's surprise invasion last week.
New black and white footage released shows a Russian Ka-52M helicopter line up the two transport vehicles in its sights and fire missiles at them.
One after the other they explode in a flash of white flame and black smoke.
Ukrainian troops later came across the damaged trucks as they advanced and dropped bombs from drones to finish them off.
Daylight photos show the burning wrecks on a road in between two fields.
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The Russian bungle was one of a number of friendly fire incidents that have happened during Ukraine's shock invasion of Russia.
Another saw the same type of helicopter gunship destroy one Russian 2S19M2 Msta-S self-propelled gun and damage another.
The Russian-on-Russian attacks are reminiscent of when warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin tried to overthrow Putin.
The Wagner boss fought for the Russians in Bakhmut before he was eventually blown out of the sky after a failed coup.
The fast-moving military campaign has also seen Ukraine destroy Putin's "turtle tanks".
Russian tanks have appeared with shell-like cages welded on top in a desperate bid to defend from drone attacks.
Humiliated Putin has lost almost all of the operational tanks he had when he began his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Since before the grim two-year milestone in Mad Vlad's war, Russian top brass have been forced to rely instead on “warehouses and warehouses with stockpiles of vehicles left over from the Cold War".
Ukraine invaded Russia's Kursk region nine days ago, bursting through Putin's light defences and poorly trained conscripts.
Dramatic first person footage showed Ukraine's valiant troops dressed in camouflaged bodysuits as they run through the woods hunting Putin's men with grenades, guns and rockets.
Video shows the heavily armed soldiers storming through the trees as they get closer to the enemy.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has managed to seize as much Russian land in just eight days of their mini invasion as Putin's forces achieved in the last eight months.
Mad Vlad has been left fuming over the continued incursion as he sent more troops into Kursk to “kick the enemy out".
Kyiv now claims to control 74 settlements in Kusrk and a formidable 1,000 square kilometres of enemy soil as of Tuesday evening.
The Ukrainians are also thought to have also captured up to 1,200 enemy soldiers in a severe setback for Putin and a significant confidence boost for Zelensky's forces.
Being the first Russian leader to concede Russian territory to foreign troops since the Second World War has left Vlad humiliated.
Footage this week showed the dictator twitching and rubbing his hands together, looking "rattled".
Around 100,000 locals have been evacuated from Kursk and the neighbouring Russian region of Belgorod.
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Vlad on Monday insisted Moscow would eventually push the Ukrainians back despite the fierce fighting raging on.
He said Ukraine's offensive appeared a ploy to gain leverage at the negotiating table for potential peace talks.
Vladimir Putin is 'rattled' by invasion
By Owen Leonard
VLADIMIR Putin has been labelled "hesitant" and "rattled" as the Russian tyrant grapples with Ukraine's surprise invasion.
Kyiv's troops launched a shock offensive into the Kursk region last week ruffling the president's feathers.
Footage has since emerged of a nervous Vlad addressing Russia's security and defence chiefs.
He appears unsteady as he twitches and rubs his hands together.
International Institute for Strategic Studies senior researcher Nigel Gould-Davies said the 71-year-old looked "rattled".
Gould-Davies wrote on X: "Putin discussing Ukraine’s incursion into Russia, which he says the West is behind.
"He looks and sounds not angry, outraged, determined — but hesitant and rattled."
Body language pro Professor Erik Bucy told The Sun that Putin was uncharacteristically speaking with "a halting and unconvincing delivery".
He said: "These clips of Putin depict a leader who has been knocked off balance.
"He comes across as both nonchalant and unconvinced by what he is saying, like a salesman reading a prepared script for the first time.
"For a warlord intent on dominating Ukraine and other neighbouring countries, Putin seems uncharacteristically subdued and preoccupied.
"Lacking conviction, he is clearly just reading whatever someone had just put in front of him."