The guy who drove a rolling tank bomb at Russian soldiers jammed the accelerator down before jumping out of a hatch, Ukraine says

An old Russian-made T-62 tank in a vehicle "graveyard" at an Israeli army base near the southern town of Kiryat Gat in May 2011.

REUTERS/Amir Cohen

• Ukraine copied Russia's tactics of driving a tank filled with explosives toward an enemy position.
• The brigade told Insider the driver had to position the tank, jam the accelerator, and jump out.
• The mission was so dangerous that no one was ordered to do it. Instead, volunteers were sought.

The Ukrainian soldier who drove a tank converted into a bomb toward a Russian position had to get it close, jam the accelerator down, and jump out of a hatch before it exploded, according to his brigade.

Yaroslav Galas, a major and the press officer with Ukraine's 128th Separate Mountain Assault Transcarpathian Brigade, told Insider that the driver of the vehicle, which had been captured from Russia, drove it to about a third of a mile from Russian forces and then "he put the foot down on the accelerator, he blocked it there, and then he jumped out and ran away."

Earlier this week the brigade called it a "kamikaze tank" and quoted the driver, Vasil Dudinets, as saying: "I was fully aware that I might not make it back. But it would have been instant death if the tank had been hit and the explosives had gone off."

Giving further details, Galas said the tank, which was used last month in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, a hot spot in Ukraine's counteroffensive, was filled with about 1.5 tons of explosives. 

He said the driver escaped out of a hatch in the tank's front, as getting out the top would be too dangerous.

Galas also said that Dudinets had to go to such close proximity that he could be hit by a Russian grenade.

It was so dangerous, he said, that no one was forced to take on the mission.

"It was very, very, dangerous, which is why the commander didn't give any order. They just suggested, and then asked for a volunteer," Galas said.

Dudinets signed up right away, according to the brigade.

Galas said he believed it was the first time Ukraine had tried this tank-bomb tactic, and that the brigade had got the idea from Russian forces, which had used the same tactic against Ukraine.

"The decision was made to use a similar tactic and to see whether it would be effective or not and how effective would it be," he said.

The UK Ministry of Defence previously said that Ukraine had destroyed many Russian tank bombs before they got close enough to do any significant damage.

The Ukrainian tank made it to within 165 feet of its intended target, where it exploded after hitting a mine. Dudinets was supposed to use a remote detonator, but it wasn't necessary in the end as seemingly all of the explosives went off with the mine blast, Galas said.

Galas described the operation as ultimately about "80% effective," and one he would try again.

"If it made it closer to the position, then, of course, it would've caused greater damage," he said, but added that it still caused "enormous damage."

"Even if it didn't destroy completely the position, it damaged the position so hard that they were no longer troubling us from that point," he said.

Galas said the brigade had a lot of "brave" and "reckless" people who would be open to driving one of these tanks, but the limiting factor was having another vehicle in bad enough condition to be sacrificed but that was still able to make the actual journey.

The tank used was a T-62 captured from Russian forces when Ukraine took back the city of Kherson last year.

The UK's defense ministry said these tanks were first adopted by the Soviet Union in 1961, and that their production was stopped in the 1970s.

Galas said Ukraine took dozens of similar tanks in that operation, where he said Russian forces "were running away and they were leaving behind their tanks."

He described the T-62 his brigade got as "very old" and "very out of date."

"It's a dinosaur. It's a fossil," he said.

Galas also said its cannon was damaged, and that it was initially used just to carry things. But as its condition worsened, the decision was made to pack it with explosives and send it back toward Russian forces.

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