Striking video appears to show Ukrainian suicide drones destroying a column of Russian armored vehicles

• Ukraine shared footage it says shows several Russian armored vehicles being taken out.
• It appears to include footage from the view of "suicide" drones just before they hit the vehicles.
• Ukraine said it comes from the Donetsk region, where fighting has been intense in recent weeks.

Ukraine's National Guard shared a video compiling what appear to be the last moments of several "suicide" drones as they pick off Russian armored vehicles in a devastating attack.

The video, shared Tuesday, includes airborne footage that approaches the armored vehicles at speed before crashing into them and abruptly cutting out.

That footage appears to be taken from the perspective of loitering munitions, otherwise known as suicide drones, as they are destroyed in the attack. In one instance showing their apparent precision, the drone appears to head directly into the open hatch of a vehicle.

The drone's-eye-view footage is intercut with grainy video that appears to show the same explosions from a distance.

It later shows what appears to be the view from a shoulder-mounted missile launcher, before cutting to the scene of several flaming vehicles, smoke billowing out of them.

According to the Ukrainian National Guard, the video showed Ukraine's efforts to hold off Russian troops around Avdiivka, a town to the north of the strategic city of Donetsk.

Insider was unable to confirm the footage, but an assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that fighting had continued around the town of Avdiivka on Tuesday.

It said that Ukraine's General Staff had reported its forces holding off several Russian assaults in the area.

Ukraine's National Guard said that Russia had deployed repeated artillery bombardment in the area — something that ISW noted was frustrated by increasing difficulties in the Russian munitions supply line.

Although Russia claims to have annexed the entire Donbas region since late September, it only controls around half of it, and Avdiivka sits exactly on the front line.

Both the Ukrainian and Russian side have made extensive use of suicide drones, with Iran-made Shahed-136 drones powering much of Russia's bombardment of civilian areas and energy infrastructure.