An Australian Bushmaster armored vehicle donated to Ukraine has been destroyed by Russian forces.
Apparently, a video showed the burnt remains of the vehicle in an empty field on the border between Donetsk and Luhansk.
The Australian government donated 20 Bushmaster vehicles to the Ukrainian army earlier this year.
Australia has supplied 20 Bushmaster armored vehicles to Ukraine. (Angela Wylie)
They were painted olive green and equipped with radios, GPS and enhanced shielding protection.
The delivery also included two ambulance versions of the vehicle.
Images of the destroyed Bushmaster were published by Ukraine Weapons Tracker.
It was widely used by the Australian Defense Force on rough terrain during the Afghanistan conflict.
An Australian humanitarian worker was killed in Ukraine last week.
Michael O’Neill, a Tasmanian father who worked as a truck driver assisting wounded and wounded Ukrainians at the front, died last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian troops exchanged blows in a fierce hand-to-hand combat on Sunday in a city in eastern Ukraine as Moscow’s soldiers, backed by heavy bombardment, tried to reach a strategic point to conquer the region.
The Ukrainian leader also paid a rare front-line visit to Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, to assess the strength of national defense.
In the east, Russian forces stormed Sievierodonetsk after unsuccessfully trying to encircle the strategic city, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation there as “indescribably difficult”, with relentless bombardment of Russian artillery destroying critical infrastructure and damaging 90 percent of buildings.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has visited leading positions in eastern Ukraine. (AP)
“The capture of Sievierodonetsk is a major task of the occupation force,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the Russians do not care about the victims.
Sievierodonetsk, located 143 km south of the Russian border, has in recent days become the epicenter of Moscow’s search to capture the entire eastern industrial region of Ukraine’s Donbass.
Russia also intensified its efforts to capture the nearby city of Lysychansk, where civilians rushed to escape the persistent bombing.
The two eastern cities are home to the strategically important Siverskiy Donetsk River.
They are the last large areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk Oblast, which forms the Donbas along with the adjacent Donetsk region.
– He reported to the Associated Press
Kyiv celebrates freedom from Russian attacks