WRECK & RUIN
Watch moment shell-shocked Russian troops walk through TANK GRAVEYARD after Ukrainian strike destroys base
Kyiv's forces reportedly used deadly 'Dragonfire' drones
THIS is the shocking moment shell-shocked Russian troops walked through a graveyard of tankers blitzed in a devastating strike.
Crack Ukrainian troops obliterated a Russian refuelling point, destroying at least four Russian T-80BVM MBTs and a MAZ 531605 fuel tanker.
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Footage published by open-source intelligence (OSINT) accounts shows the aftermath of the blitz.
Charred fuel tankers can be seen littered around, with fires burning in different spots.
Shocked soldiers, reported as a Russians, can be seen walking around the tank graveyard and observing the destroyed equipment.
It is understood the Ukrainian attack took place in the Luhansk region on September 3.
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Unverified reports by military bloggers suggest Kyiv's forces used the deadly "Dragonfire" drones that spit flesh-eating thermite in the devastating attack.
If it comes into contact with human flesh, it can melt through right down to the bone.
While the use of thermite as a weapon can be extremely dangerous, it is not banned by International arms control organisations to use against enemy positions in active warzones.
However, the tactical weapon has been used widely by Russians against innocent Ukrainian civilians since the start of the war.
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Kyiv's forces are now understood to be using the flamethrower drones to wipe out Russian positions.
Incredible footage shows a Ukrainian FPV drone raining down flesh-melting thermite on a tree line understood to be occupied by Russian troops.
The drone can be seen flying low just above the treeline as it throws flames to burn and wipe pit enemy positions.
Large plumes of smoke can be seen billowing from the trees as the Ukrainian drone blitzed Russian troops with the flamethrower.
The drone can be seen flying low just above the treeline as it throws flames to burn and wipe pit enemy positions.
It comes as Ukrainian troops were seen storming Russian trenches while dodging heavy machine gun fire from the enemy lines.
Daring soldiers from Ukraine's Third Assault Brigade sparked a brutal counteroffensive after they were deployed in a forest near Kharkiv.
The clip, shared by Ukrainian military bloggers, shows the troops launching the raid at dawn after they were dropped from a military chopper.
Crack soldiers can be seen engaging in heated gunfights as they storm enemy positions camouflaged in the dense forest.
They raid enemy dugouts, storm through the Russian trenches and rescue wounded troops as they move towards the frontlines.
Russian troops on the other side try to thwart the Ukrainian advance using machine guns as they shower them with bullets, but daring Kyiv's forces continue to move forward and cut off enemy lines.
A brave Ukrainian soldier can be heard saying: "If I get into the trench line, I'll kill that machine gunner with my bare hands."
PARANOID PUTIN
Russia has been desperately trying to regain the upper hand in Ukraine after Zelensky's forces pushed through into enemy territory on August 6.
They now claim to control over 500 square miles of Putin's territory in Russia’s worst defeat on home soil since World War Two.
Moscow has previously said the incursion renders any peace talks between the countries impossible, marking a U-turn in Mad Vlad's policy.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky said the blitz was part of a master plan to help end the war.
It served a humiliating blow to Putin's efforts - as the so-called "special operation" he said would last just weeks in early 2022 approaches the three-year mark.
Footage has revealed the true extent of Ukraine's success in Kursk with hordes of Russian soldiers surrendering and being taken as prisoners of war.
Raging Putin hit back with indiscriminate air attacks on Ukrainian cities as he licks his wounds from the crushing defeat.
Just days ago two Russian ballistic missiles were launched at a military academy and hospital inside Ukraine.
At least 51 people were killed and 271 were injured in what has been described as one of the deadliest attacks since the start of the war.
Russian Islander missiles scored a direct hit on a parade ground and canteen as electronic warfare trainees gathered in Poltava in northeastern Ukraine.
Dozens of military recruits scrambled for cover after being alerted by sirens but were blown up in the blast before they could reach for safety.
The attack was aimed at cadets from specialist military unit A3990 at the Institute of Communications but also damaged a nearby hospital.
Meanwhile, Putin once again has floated peace talks with Ukraine.
He said he was "ready to negotiate" and is willing to revisit a failed deal from mediated talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul early on in the war.
And this comes just weeks after Ukrainian soldiers burst into Russia.
Is Putin's 'peace talks' offer sincere?
By Alan Mendoza, Founder and the Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society
Vladimir Putin is not known for making offers out of the goodness of his heart.
So his sudden interest in peace talks to end the Ukraine War must be on account of something other than a genuine desire to end the bloodshed he initiated in 2022 by invading Ukraine.
The reason is likely obvious: it has finally dawned on Putin that a war that was supposed to be over in days has no easy end.
Ukraine’s surprise August invasion of Russia’s Kursk province will have played a factor in his thinking.
Putin has long posed as the champion of Russian security. Yet he has been unable to reverse a humiliating seizure of Russian land.
With the prospect of Ukraine soon being able to use long-range missiles to target Russian missile and air bases, the immediate future looks challenging for Putin.
His raising of peace talks is an acknowledgement that Ukrainian successes are unnerving him.
But before we get too excited, Putin has not revealed any of the terms he is offering.
And if they involve punishing Ukraine by forcing it to give up territory, then they will be unacceptable.
So the onus must now be on Putin to outline what he is proposing, without allowing him to stall for time, or to disrupt Ukraine’s advances.
It is military pressure on Putin that has got us to this point.
It will need to continue for us to be certain that he is really considering ending this terrible war of his own making.
Speaking at the 2024 Eastern Economic Forum on September 5, he said: "Are we ready to negotiate with them?
"We have never refused to do so, but not based on some ephemeral demands, but based on those documents that were agreed and initiated in Istanbul."
A preliminary agreement between Russia and Ukraine was reached in the Turkish city not long after the war began but was never implemented.
The terms of the deal were never made public.
Ageing Putin, 71, said China, India and Brazil could act as mediators in potential new peace talks.
He later added: "If there is a desire of Ukraine to carry on with the negotiations, I can do that."
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Putin has previously floated peace talks - but has always insisted that Russia would take, or get to keep occupied Ukrainian territory.
Kyiv has previously said it will not directly engage with Russia during any negotiations to end the war and has been steadfast in not giving up any of its territory.
The Sun's Jerome Starkey inside Russia
By Jerome Starkey, Defence Editor in Russia
The Sun stepped into sovereign Russia – despite Kremlin threats to kill or convict us – to speak to ordinary Russians left stranded by their soldiers’ humiliating retreat.
Bomb blasts echoed over ruined buildings as Olga, 23, a taxi cab dispatcher, said: “I didn’t think about the war at all. I was just working constantly.
“Home, job, home. I didn’t think about anything beyond my personal life.”
All that changed on August 6 when Ukraine launched a surprise attack from neighbouring Sumy province and captured 1,300 square kilometres in Russia’s worst defeat on home soil since the end of World War Two.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky claimed the blitz was part of a master plan to help end the war.
Bomb blasts echoed over ruined buildings as Olga, 23, a taxi cab dispatcher, said: “I didn’t think about the war at all. I was just working constantly.
“Home, job, home. I didn’t think about anything beyond my personal life.”
All that changed on August 6 when Ukraine launched a surprise attack from neighbouring Sumy province and captured 1,300 square kilometres in Russia’s worst defeat on home soil since the end of World War Two.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky claimed the blitz was part of a master plan to help end the war.
And he stressed that ordinary Russians must “feel” the effects of the war unleashed by tyrant Putin.
Olga said her mother and brother fled their hometown of Sudzha, the largest Russian town now under Ukrainian control.
But Olga was cut off by fighting and unable to cross town to reach them before they escaped.
We met her in a temporary shelter where Ukrainian troops were providing food and beds for civilians left behind.
She added: “I stayed because I couldn’t leave. There was no evacuation.”
A statue of Lenin in Sudzha’s main square had been severely maimed – only part of his trunk appeared to remain on the pedestal.
Behind it, the town hall’s grand facade lay shattered by artillery holes.
A blue and yellow Ukrainian flag fluttered from a makeshift flagpole.
Graffiti on the cobbles mocked Russia’s defenders for fleeing.
It said: “Russians, learn how to fight. Your conscripts are rotting in forests.”
The Russian soldiers defending Sudzha were a mixture of border guards, conscripts and Chechens from the Akhmat battalion.
One of the Sudzha’s residents cursed them for fleeing so quickly
They said: “Our defence was so bad. There weren’t any soldiers. That’s why we are here.”
Around 600 civilians still live in Sudzha from a pre-war population of 5,000, Ukrainian soldiers estimated.
They said it was hard to tell precisely as many were sheltering underground.
While we were there a man came in who had spent the last three weeks in a cellar.
The troops said it was the first time they had seen him.
Pensioner Valentina, 76, another resident in the shelter, said she had tried to forget the war since she moved to Sudzha five years ago – from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
She left to escape the fighting that was unleashed in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists broke away from Kyiv’s control.
Speaking from her dormitory bed, she said: “I never thought this war would be so big that it would come to such a little place like this.
“What is there to fight for here?”
Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin said Ukraine wanted Russian territory to use as a bargaining chip in any future peace talks.
Kyiv claimed the land was a buffer zone to limit Russian attacks.
Zelensky has also stressed the importance of capturing 600 prisoners of war to swap for captured Ukrainians.
The assault has boosted morale in Ukraine and changed the narrative of the conflict after months of grinding losses in eastern Donbas.
It has also turned the tables on and shattered the slowly calcifying myth of Russia’s inevitable victory.
She left to escape the fighting that was unleashed in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists broke away from Kyiv’s control.
Speaking from her dormitory bed, she said: “I never thought this war would be so big that it would come to such a little place like this.
“What is there to fight for here?”
Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin said Ukraine wanted Russian territory to use as a bargaining chip in any future peace talks.
Kyiv claimed the land was a buffer zone to limit Russian attacks.
Zelensky has also stressed the importance of capturing 600 prisoners of war to swap for captured Ukrainians.
The assault has boosted morale in Ukraine and changed the narrative of the conflict after months of grinding losses in eastern Donbas.
It has also turned the tables on and shattered the slowly calcifying myth of Russia’s inevitable victory.
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