Frontline Victory: the moment Ukrainian forces destroyed Russia's best tank with a powerful artillery round

 

In July 2024, Ukrainian artillery achieved a remarkable milestone by destroying one of Russia’s most advanced tanks using a U.S.-supplied precision artillery round.

According to Militarnyi, Ukrainian Defense Forces successfully struck a Russian T-90M tank—positioned approximately 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) behind the front line—with a 155mm artillery shell carrying cluster munitions. The event was reported on July 9, 2024.

The T-90M was identified near the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region by a Ukrainian Shark reconnaissance drone. From its concealed position deep behind enemy lines, the tank was believed to be engaging Ukrainian forces when it was targeted.

Combat footage, captured by an overhead drone and shared via the Telegram channel 'Hnyla Chereshnia,' showed the precise moment the artillery shell struck the tank. The video documented a 155mm BONUS round deploying mid-air, releasing its submunitions that then zeroed in on the tank. The footage revealed that the T-90M was hit at least twice.

“Detected by the Shark reconnaissance drone, the Russian tank received two hits on the poorly protected turret roof with two armor-piercing submunitions,” Militarnyi reported.

The strike utilized a high-precision cluster munition known as the BONUS round, co-developed by French defense firm Nexter and Sweden’s Bofors. While it is a NATO-standard 155mm shell, its advanced design includes two autonomous bomblets equipped with infrared sensors and laser-guided range finders. These bomblets are capable of independently identifying and engaging targets, making the BONUS round highly effective—particularly against heavily armored vehicles like the T-90M.

Though the use of such a precision-guided round might make the strike seem less extraordinary, what drew attention from military analysts and observers was the cost disparity involved. A single T-90M tank costs around $4.5 million, according to The National Interest (May 2024). By contrast, military analysis website Deagel estimated that a BONUS shell costs approximately $40,000.

BAE Systems, one of the shell’s co-developers, describes the BONUS round as giving “155mm cannon artillery long-range capability to destroy enemy combat vehicles, ranging from armored personnel carriers and self-propelled guns to infantry fighting vehicles and main battle tanks.” Once launched from any compatible 155mm artillery system, the shell releases its two sensor-fuzed munitions, which then scan an area up to 32,000 square meters for targets.

The BONUS round is compatible with most 155mm artillery systems—many of which have been provided to Ukraine by its allies—giving Ukraine a broad and versatile means of striking high-value targets.

The T-90M is widely regarded as the most advanced Russian tank deployed in the war against Ukraine. According to the Dutch open-source intelligence group Oryx, which tracks equipment losses using verified photo and video evidence, Russia had lost at least 133 T-90M tanks as of April 15, 2025.