A Massive Battle: Russian Tank Assault Near Ocheretino Defeated

• 24.07.2026, 8:32

The T-72B3A's first combat deployment was a failure.

A massive tank battle took place near Ocheretino. The Russian Armed Forces’ mechanized assault was crushed, and the Russians suffered heavy losses.

Rumors about this began circulating as early as the morning of July 23, when the Ukrainian General Staff published its daily report. It reported that the Russians had lost 28 tanks at once, which is extremely rare at this stage of the war. A senior lieutenant in the Ukrainian Defense Forces, call sign “Alex,” provided details.

According to him, the battle took place near Ocheretino in the Donbas. “For nearly a year, I hadn’t seen a more or less significant number of enemy tanks and infantry fighting vehicles during a mechanized assault. But today (the Russians—ed.) decided to remind us… The armor and personnel were successfully annihilated. The enemy achieved no success; 80% of all their junk was destroyed on the approaches to the front line,” the officer said.

Footage of the rout was soon published. The video was posted by the National Guard’s “Omega” special forces unit. “On the front lines, our FPV drones detected and neutralized a column of Russian armored vehicles. The video shows the spectacular work of the ‘Wings of Omega’ soldiers,” the statement said.

An officer of the Israel Defense Forces and military analyst Igal Levin noted that the assault marked the first combat deployment by the Russians of their modernized T-72B3A tanks. “The first combat deployment of T-72B3A tanks equipped with the ‘Arena-M’ CASS, modernized to counter FPV drones, ended unsuccessfully. The video shows footage of the T-72B3A tank being hit in the rear—the KAZ system failed to function… It is evident that the attempt to deploy Russian armored vehicles on a massive scale proved unsuccessful,” he wrote.