How elite Ukrainian unit stole £1million Russian T-72 tank from under Vlad’s nose to unlock its secrets to win drone war

AN elite Ukrainian unit staged a daring three-day mission to capture a £1million Russian tank suspected of carrying secret technology.

The 12th Azov brigade had one goal - risk their lives to sneak across the frontline and steal a T-72 because Kyiv feared it was able to repel its drones.

Sometime in early April, a T-72 tank rolled onto the frontline near Terny in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. It collided with a fighting vehicle and got stuck in barbed wire.

Ukraine immediately hit its sitting duck target with an FPV drone. Its three-person crew were killed as they bailed out, but the tank was sustained only minimal damage.

And Kyiv desperately wanted it.

In 26 months of war, Russia has lost 2,600 T-72s, but this one was special - it had a bizarre mass of antennae and transmitters strapped to its turret.

The improvised electronic warfare system looked like it might be trying to block radio signals between the attack drones and their operators.

But the jammer hadn't worked and Ukraine needed to know why.

In the war of the drones, it is a constant scramble for both sides to stay one step ahead in repelling enemy electronic warfare and launch their own jamming.

The fearsome 12th Azov Brigade were ordered to make three dangerous nighttime assaults into no man's land to capture the abandoned tank, reports .

The crack unit had to untangle the tank from a mess of barbed wire, replace its batteries and clear all mines planted in its path.

Then, the T-72 had to be driven across bomb-blitzed terrain to Ukraine while being shot at by Russian artillery.

There were reportedly near-misses, but the tank and team made it back in one piece.

What they found wasn't a fearsome new jamming weapon, but a taped-together mismatched jumble of antennae and transmitters.

An Azov commander understatedly labelled as "makeshift".

Russia has faced criticism of its electronic warfare systems at the front in the past - often badly-made and badly-assembled - that offer little protection against cheap, enemy drones.

Suffering from a loss of artillery, Ukraine has been heavily relying on first-person-view (FPV) drones — kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to hunt down the enemy and blast its tanks.

Over two thirds of Russian tanks destroyed by Ukraine in recent months have been taken out using FPV drones, a Nato official told Foreign Policy.

They're also being constantly adapted and upgraded as Ukraine's military learns from each new battle.

The head of Kyiv’s attack drone operations, "Arsenal", recently told The Sun that FPV's were blitzing three out of five of its targets on the battlefield.

He called FPVs "our sword, our strike force," and added that: "Absolutely every drone, even the ones that fall under the influence of Russian electronic jamming, save lives."

However, after suffering serious losses, Russia is now attempting to overcome Ukraine's technological success with battle armour.

Moscow's forces are now readily fitting anti-drone armour, including steel cages dubbed "mobile sheds", to their tanks and combat vehicles.

A typical FPV drone carries only a one pound explosive payload which may not be able to penetrate its steel shield.

But the killing qaudcopters are constantly being adapted and upgraded as Ukraine's military learns from each new battle.

Special ops warrior Arsenal told The Sun that while Ukraine “is certainly not far behind Russia” in terms of drone warfare, "we lag behind in the number of drones and in their intensity”.