This footage shows the Ukrainian Armed Forces taking out Russian military equipment using the Bayraktar TB2 combat drone, with the Ukrainians quoting a famous British military leader.

Newsflash obtained the footage from the Operational Command South, a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces in the southern part of Ukraine, on the evening of 23rd March (Wednesday).

The footage was accompanied with a quotation from Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and World War II: “The harder the fighting and the longer the war, the more the infantry, and in fact all the arms, lean on the gunners.”

But the Operational Command South also added: “And in modern conditions – also on the UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle].”

The Bayraktar TB2, manufactured by the Turkish company Baykar Defence, is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicle capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations.

It has been used to great effect by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24th February. It is not clear exactly how many such drones the Ukrainian Armed Forces have, but the number is believed to be over 20. Only one is believed to have been shot down by the Russian Armed Forces so far.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, by 23rd March, Russia had lost nearly 15,800 personnel, 530 main battle tanks, 1,597 armoured combat vehicles, 280 artillery units, 82 MLR systems, 47 air defence systems, 108 warplanes, 124 helicopters, 1,033 military vehicles, four vessels, 72 fuel tank trucks, 50 operational and tactical-level UAVs, and 16 units of special equipment.

And earlier this week, US intelligence officials gave a “conservative” estimate of over 7,000 Russian soldiers killed, and the open-source Oryx Blog says Russia has so far lost 66 aircraft.

The Oryx Blog also enumerates Russia’s military equipment losses at the hands of the Bayraktar TB2 as four armoured fighting vehicles, five towed artilleries, one multiple rocket launcher, 10 surface-to-air missile systems, two command posts, one communications station, nine helicopters, two logistics trains, and 24 trucks, vehicles or jeeps.

Russia has so far managed to occupy swathes of northern, eastern and southern Ukraine. However, the Russian Armed Forces have not achieved the quick takeover of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin is believed to have been expecting. Russian advances have remained sluggish and major cities, such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, remain in Ukrainian hands.

The Oryx Blog is run by “Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans, two military analysts devoted to investigating and sharing the ins and outs of conflict research, open-source intelligence and the occasional obscure piece of military history”.