Overview

• On August 18, Russian state media RT released video showing a captured US-made M113 armored personnel carrier flying both Russian and American flags near the Zaporizhzhia front.
• Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, described the footage as “maximum audacity” and accused Russia of exploiting US symbols to legitimize its aggression.
• Major news outlets noted they could not independently verify the authenticity of the RT footage, highlighting the challenges of confirming battlefield imagery in wartime.
• Since February 2022, the US Department of Defense has supplied over 900 M113s to Ukraine, with open-source intelligence site Oryx reporting at least 397 losses by destruction, damage, abandonment, or capture.
• Analysts and information-security groups characterize the clip as deliberate trolling linked to the recent Trump–Putin Alaska summit and the upcoming Trump–Zelensky White House meeting.