Moment Putin’s $500k T-72 tank is eviscerated by kamikaze drone sending turret flying 100ft above scarred battlefield

THIS is the moment a Russian tank is obliterated, turning into a massive fireball that sent its turret flying 100ft into the air.

The dramatic footage was taken during an attack near Bakhmut, when a Ukrainian kamikaze drone wiped out a T-72 tank.

The lethal FPV zeroes in on a $500k tank that had been firing at Ukrainian soldiers, meeting it with an impressive speed and slamming straight into it.

The screen goes grey and pixelated after the initial impact, before the footage jumps to a wider angle.

An aerial shot is then used to show the colossal clouds of smoke emanating from the fiery ball while the turret is launched an estimated 100ft above the battlefield.

For all of the tank’s state-of-the-art drone detection, advanced weaponry, and armour it was no match for the Ukrainian FPV.

“The grill that was installed on the tower did no save the occupants from the inevitable retribution,” the Ukrainian armed forces wrote in a Telegram post.

It comes just hours after Russia was forced to declare a state of emergency after a torrent of kamikaze drones targeted a key Putin airbase.

At least 16 explosions rung through the night in Russia‘s border city of Voronezh after air defence systems reportedly intercepted the incoming aerial vehicles.

A 10-year-old girl sustained cut wounds to her arm, leg and neck.

Windows were smashed in several apartment blocks near the air base. 

And on Monday, one of Putin’s multi-million dollar T-80BVM tank was annihilated by a cheap Ukrainian UAV in Avdiivka.

Dramatic footage shows the drone tailing the tank before hitting it dead on, tearing it apart in a fiery mess.

The successful hit came just after two of Vladimir Putin’s most crucial planes worth £290million were shot down on Sunday.

One of Putin’s £260million spy planes disappeared, while a £30million bomber jet was set on fire after Ukrainian forces blasted them out the sky above the Azov Sea.

Since the start of the war, Kyiv estimates that Moscow has lost over 6,000 tanks and 11,254 armoured combat vehicles.

Putin is also believed to have lost at least 340,000 troops, thousands of rocket systems, aircraft, ships, submarines and drones.

According to Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, this is Putin’s second greatest mistake.

He said: “If his first catastrophic mistake was invading Ukraine, he is now making his second calamitous blunder.

“The Russian economy is being twisted even more out of shape.

“Nearly 40 per cent of all Russian public expenditure is being spent on defence.

“That is more than the aggregate of health and education.

“And the last time we saw these levels was at the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

He added: “This is disastrous for Russia and its people.”