Russians lost a museum BMP-1U Shkval on the front line

15 November, 2023 Destroyed BMP-1U Shkval of the invaders, November 2023. Photo credits: 47th Brigade The defense forces destroyed the first BMP-1U Shkval of the invaders, which the Russians captured during the war in Georgia and stored as an exhibit.

Militarnyi reports on this. Soldiers of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade's drone strike company posted a video of the elimination of Russian infantry near a destroyed BMP-1U infantry fighting vehicle. These combat vehicles were manufactured in Ukraine and captured by Russia during the Russian-Georgian war in 2008.

The damage to this vehicle was previously captured on video by Ukrainian UAV operators near Avdiyivka. At that time, it became popular due to footage of the vehicle hitting its own infantry. The introduction of these vehicles at the front line was first reported back in mid-September. However, the published video could not reliably identify the IFV's modification due to poor quality.

The new frames capture the KBA-105 Shkval remote weapon station, which was installed on the BMP-1U, torn off as a result of the detonation of ammunition.

The turret of the destroyed combat vehicle near Avdiyivka and the tower of the BMP-1U Shkval combat vehicle

It is worth noting that instead of the Ukrainian ZTM-1 30-mm automatic gun, the Russians installed a Soviet 2A72 gun in the module. The Ukrainian gun is structurally similar to the Soviet one, but it has a special design that restrains the barrel when firing to reduce vibrations. In addition, the module lacks a machine gun and a launcher for Konkurs anti-tank guided missiles.

All those elements could have been dismantled to simplify operations in preparing the museum exhibit to be shipped to the front.

BMP-1U Shkval

BMP-1U is a Ukrainian modernization of the Soviet infantry fighting vehicle, which was developed at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s. The main changes primarily affected the weapons system. Instead of the old single-seat turret with a 73-mm main gun, 7.62-mm machine gun, and ATGM launcher, a new unified KBA-105 Shkval combat module was installed.

It is armed with a ZTM-1 30-mm automatic gun, a 7.62-mm KT-7.62 machine gun, and a 30-mm KB-117 automatic grenade launcher. Due to the significant RWS weight, which comes to 1300 kg with full ammunition, and considering the space it occupies inside the hull, the number of servicemen in BMP-1U decreased from 8 to 6 soldiers.

Georgian BMP-1U Shkval captured by the Russian army. Photo credits: Btvt.info

Open sources report that during the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008, the Russian army captured up to 14 Georgian BMP-1U Shkval.

In total, by the beginning of the war, Ukraine delivered 15 such infantry fighting vehicles to Georgia.