A Russian soldier displays the weapons captured during Ukraine war.
Russia has shown off US weapons and other spoils of the war captured during its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The footage of the weapons, reportedly seized from Ukrainian forces, was shared by Russia's Ministry of Defence on its official Telegram channel on Sunday. In the 2 minute 15-second clip, a Russian soldier can be seen holding and talking about the weapons, including anti-tank grenade launchers made in the US, UK, Poland and Sweden. The accompanying post in English calls these weapons "trophies", which are mainly of foreign origin.
The small haul of weapons obtained during the "special military operation" also includes machine gun and small arms of Soviet origin abandoned by the Ukrainian soldiers.
"Among the trophies, weapons are mainly of foreign manufacture. Hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers made in Great Britain, the USA, Poland, Sweden, including Javelin and Carl Gustaf missile systems, as well as heavy machine guns and Soviet-made small arms abandoned by Ukrainian nationalists," the Russian defence ministry's post said.
However, the display of weapons seems to pale in comparison to images of Russian tanks and other weapons captured by Ukrainian soldiers, as shown by several news outlets.
According to Oryx, a military and intelligence blog which keeps a count of Russia's military losses in Ukraine, the Russian military has lost more than 5,000 military vehicles in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military has been able to achieve so much success in war against numerically superior Russian forces due to the support provided by Western forces. The US, the UK, Germany and other countries have sent javelins and several other state-of-the-art weapons to Ukraine to help in their fight.
Russia has said that it launched the military operation in Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and the West describe Russia's actions as unprovoked aggression.