Ukrainian troops scored a direct hit on a Russia vehicle with an old Soviet-era anti-tank gun

Ukrainian forces have learned to adapt on the battlefield after nearly three years of war. Both sides are using older Soviet-era weapons in the conflict and these weapons have shown that they can still be extremely effective on the battlefield.

For example, in December 2024, combat footage posted on social media showed Ukrainian border guards scoring a direct hit on a Russian infantry fighting vehicle using an old World War II-era Soviet-designed anti-tank gun. This incident occurred somewhere on the frontlines in Sumy Oblast. 

Video footage of the epic feat was published by the border guard unit that made the shot on their Telegram channel. It showed just how remarkably accurate the crew and the older anti-tank gun were in the heat of battle. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @staleviy_kordon

Artillery troops of Ukraine's 15th ‘Steel Border’ Border Guard Detachment used a BS-3 anti-tank gun to target and hit an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) while the Russian vehicle was moving across the battlefield. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Unknown, Own work, CC BY 2.5

The video footage released by the border guards showed they scored a direct hit with the BS-3 after firing a few shots at the Russian IFV, which was being tracked by an overhead and directing the crew's fire.

Photo Credit: Telegram @staleviy_kordon

The gun crew was employing indirect fire from a closed firing position according to the Ukrainian military website Militarnyi, which made their feat all the more surprising. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @staleviy_kordon

According to Militarnyi’s description of the incident, the first round that the border guard unit fired didn't hit their target but exploded close to the Russian IFV. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @staleviy_kordon

A second round landed just to the left of the Russian vehicle before the last round finally hit its target. The Ukrainian gun crew was using 100-mm high-explosive fragmentation shells. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @staleviy_kordon

The direct hit was a rather impressive feat for the border guard gun crew since prior to the full-scale invasion, the 15th Border Guard Detachment did not have artillery or anti-tank guns. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @staleviy_kordon

"Until the full-scale Russian invasion, border guard units did not have their own artillery, but as the situation escalated, they were armed with these guns as field artillery," Militarnyi reported.

As the conflict escalated, the 15th Border Guard Detachment was equipped with BS-3 anti-tank guns, an 80-year-old weapon first developed by the Soviet Union in 1944. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Mark Pellegrini, Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5

According to Militarnyi, the BS-3 anti-tank gun was designed as a response to counter Nazi Germany’s heavy Tiger tanks and Ferdinand self-propelled howitzers. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Mike1979, Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0

“Thanks to its good ballistics performance and powerful ammunition, it can effectively hit targets at a distance of up to 20 kilometers [12.4 miles],” Militarnyi noted about the BS-3. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @staleviy_kordon

Militarnyi added other videos and images released suggest that Ukraine's BS-3s were recommissioned Ministry of Defense’s storage bases and that Ukraine has been pairing foreign-made 100-mm shells with their BS-3s, particularly the Serbian M63P1 made by BALKAN NovoTeh.

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Photo Credit: Telegram @staleviy_kordon