Abrams Tanks Hit Russians Near Avdiivka

The American hardware was shown on video in battle for the first time.

Ukrainian tankers showed the combat use of Abrams M1 tank in the Avdiivka direction. It is noted that the brigade fighters have been using the vehicles for more than a month. Before that, there were no videos of the American machines on the battlefield. It is known that some of the tanks are equipped with additional dynamic ARAT-1 defence to resist cumulative threats better.

In the video, the Abrams tank fires several shots, probably at enemy trenches, and then moves away from the position. All of the vehicle's work is captured by a Ukrainian drone.

"It is very survivable in combat, because the entire ammunition is located outside the turret in a special rear niche. When it is hit, the energy of the explosion goes upwards. And the powerful multi-layer armour makes the Abrams one of the most protected tanks in the world," the military wrote.

The Ukrainian army received 31 tanks in the Situational Awareness version, which are a fairly common model in the US. The tank cannot fire programmable ammunition, but has one 2nd generation thermal imaging sight for the gunner, and there is a thermal imager on the turret-mounted machine gun for the commander.