Latest news on the war in Russia-Ukraine: Kyiv launches massive drone attack on Putin’s forces in Crimea and southern Russia

Ukrainians call it a “barn tank,” a bizarre-looking Russian combat vehicle captured by Kyiv’s armed forces that shows how troops are adapting to the constant threat of drone attacks.

The vehicle, built from a dilapidated, rusted T-62 tank, has been modified to have a boxy metal shell on the outside, a cage at the back and electronic warfare equipment attached to it, soldiers told Reuters after it was captured this week.

They say it was used to transport food, ammunition and troops. Its protective canopy appeared to be designed to protect against drone attacks, particularly cheaply produced FPV (first-person view) drones, which are loaded with ammunition and flown to their target by a pilot who watches them on a screen.

“It was designed to defend against FPV drones and (drone bomb) drops. It is an empty taxi for personnel whose only defense is electronic warfare,” Lieutenant Colonel Serhiy Misiura said on official Ukrainian army television.

Nearly 28 months after the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion, drones are ubiquitous on the battlefield on both sides, making it difficult to advance and operate safely.

“They obviously didn’t work hard on it. They hastily assembled it and sent the tank to the front,” said Dmytro, a Ukrainian soldier who spoke to Reuters about the vehicle in the Donetsk region.

They said the vehicle was captured near Klishchiivka, a village near the Russian-occupied town of Bakhmut where fighting had been raging for months.

Dmytro said it was difficult to get in and out with equipment through the tiny hatch. Visibility was very limited and the stench inside was overwhelming.

Drone footage released by the Ukrainian military on June 17 shows the tank and its Russian crew being hijacked in a forest area, after which Kyiv forces raised a Ukrainian flag.

A Russian guided bomb killed two people and injured three in a residential area of ​​the eastern Ukrainian city of Selydove on Friday, regional prosecutors said.

Five five-story buildings and six private houses were damaged by the UMPB D-30 bomb in Selydove, about 14 kilometers from the front line, prosecutors in the Donetsk region said via the messaging app Telegram.

Russia, which began its large-scale invasion in February 2022, has dropped more than 10,000 guided bombs since the beginning of the year, including more than 3,200 in May alone, Ukrainian military spokesman Nazar Voloshin said.

Photos show Ukrainian forces firing a 120mm mortar near the frontline town of Khasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine.

The city has become one of Russia’s main targets in recent months. Despite the extensive stationing of Kremlin troops, Ukrainian forces hold the eastern and southeastern outskirts of the city.

The Ukrainian military has launched a mass drone attack on the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, killing one person and targeting an oil refinery, local officials said.

A worker in a boiler room was killed when debris from a drone fell into it, said regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

According to disaster management authorities, three communities were attacked. Debris from a drone fell on a guesthouse in Temriuk district, but residents were evacuated and no one was injured.

Emergency services were deployed at the attack sites.

The Ukrainian military said its drones struck four oil refineries, radar stations and other military facilities in Russia in an attack on Friday morning.

“Unmanned aerial vehicles attacked the Afipsky, Ilsky, Krasnodar and Astrakhan oil refineries,” the Ukrainian military said.

“In addition, radar stations and electronic reconnaissance centers of the Russian invaders in the Bryansk region and in the temporarily occupied Crimea were hit,” the statement said.

The Ukrainian military also said it had attacked drone storage and preparation facilities in Russia’s Krasnodar region.