- Images from Ukraine show how US-donated gear is making a difference in the war.
- An official described how a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle took a direct hit but kept going.
A series of photos shared by Ukraine shows how the Bradley infantry fighting vehicles donated by the US are proving their worth as they join the fight against Russia.
The photos were shared Thursday morning on Telegram by Hanna Maliar, Ukraine's deputy defense minister.
Her post showed a beaten-up Bradley fresh from battle.
The vehicle was part of Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade, which has been involved in heavy fighting during the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Maliar said the vehicle took a direct hit from a Russian Grad rocket system — but was tough enough to keep going, while protecting everyone inside.
After being hit, the vehicle's crew evacuated, and the driver was able to get it to safety and put out the fire, Maliar said.
One photo showed the scorched vehicle, which she said was being repaired.
She also shared images of its crew, below, and a close-up of the driver, seen above.
Observers have noted heavy losses among Bradley IFVs in Ukraine, Insider's Mia Jankowicz reported earlier this week.
On Thursday, the open-source site Oryx, which tracks visual evidence of losses, reported 16 Bradleys had either been destroyed or damaged and abandoned on the battlefield.
Losing the equipment is obviously worse than not losing it — especially as the reported losses constitute a large chunk of the 109 Bradleys sent to Ukraine by the US.
But, Maliar said, the point of the IFVs is not to be invincible but to protect the soldiers inside so they can survive to fight again.
The fast-moving, gun-mounted vehicles can provide some firepower — even posing a threat to tanks — while moving troops to where they need to be.
Analysts have said that Bradleys are significantly better at doing this than the flimsier Soviet BMP vehicles, which both Ukraine and Russia have deployed extensively during the conflict.
"Russians — they don't take crew survivability as seriously as we take crew survivability, and that's really important for the Ukrainians," the retired US Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli told Task and Purpose.
Bradleys, Chiarelli said, "provide tremendous overwatch to infantry."
Over the weekend, during fighting near the small city of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region, one Bradley took only minor damage from a direct hit, and its soldiers quickly evacuated almost unharmed, NBC News reported.
It's unclear whether this was the same Bradley Maliar mentioned. NBC reported that other Bradleys were damaged or partially destroyed.
The Ukrainian soldier Anton Borshch told NBC that the vehicles were making a major difference.
"My guys ride a Bradley. They calmly clear the landing and can also evacuate dead and wounded from the battlefield," he said.
The resilience of the US-donated equipment, in short, could be giving Ukrainian forces an edge on the battlefield.