Russians mock Ukraine by placing Russian and US flags on captured equipment

Russian soldiers have been filmed taunting Ukraine over Donald Trump’s perceived support for Vladimir Putin.

Trump is meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart today at the White House, who has brought along European leaders as backup.

Top of the agenda is ending Russia’s grinding, three-year-long war against Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Trump left Volodymyr Zelensky off the guest list when he gave Putin a long-desired one-on-one meeting in Alaska on Friday, which ended with him backing the Russian leader’s peace proposal.

It’s a plan to end the war that’s not exactly what Kyiv – and Europe – are keen on: hand over chunks of Ukrainian land in the Donbas region to the Kremlin.

But it seems that Putin’s army had an inkling that the meeting would go in their leader’s favour even days ago.

A Russian news outlet claimed Kremlin soldiers had captured the American-made vehicle (Picture: RT/east2west news)

Footage captured the moment Russian troops rode an American MM13 personnel carrier they captured from Ukrainian forces on August 12.

The video, shared today on Telegram by the Kremlin-controlled broadcaster, Russia Today, showed the soldiers flying US and Russian flags.

According to geolocation experts, the vehicle was driven from Verbovye to Malaya Tokmachka, a village of fewer than 200 people in Zaporizhzhia.

Russia Today said the vehicle had been ‘repaired and revived’ and is now being used to ‘carry out combat missions’.

But the fact that the video, filmed by Russia’s 70th Motor Rifle Division, was uploaded today wasn’t lost on political commentators.

12.08
Russian Mech assault from Verbove on Mala Tokmachka.
it failedhttps://t.co/i5IistTHBZ https://t.co/RzckqzJ6Wv pic.twitter.com/fKqvA8V27t

— imi (m) (@moklasen) August 18, 2025

Petr Andryushchenko, head of the Centre for the Study of the Occupation, said: ‘The Russians have already declared the United States an ally and are storming Malaya Tokmachka in M113 armoured personnel carriers….with Russian and American flags.

‘This is the logical conclusion to all of Trump’s absurdity. And all of this is on the official propaganda channel of Russia Today.

‘There are no words.’

Pro-Ukrainian blogger Igor Sushko added: ‘Russian fascists are now invading Ukraine while proudly displaying Russian and American flags.

‘Maybe this ought to be a wake-up call for certain people.’

Some military experts have noted that the vehicle is more similar in appearance to the Russian APC-MDM ‘Rakushka’.

The Pentagon has handed Kyiv more than 900 Vietnam War-era M113 vehicles as part of various aid packages, according to a US government fact sheet.

Putin’s peace proposal would see Ukraine cede unconquered territory to the Russian invaders in the Donbas, rather than try for a ceasefire, in exchange for vague security guarantees.

Ditching a ceasefire had previously been something Trump was willing to punish Russia with economic sanctions if Russia did not do.

Russia controls a large part of a region of the Donbas called Luhansk but has struggled for the better part of a decade to wrest control of its other half, Donetsk, from Ukraine.

The proposal will be discussed today between Trump, Zelensky and European leaders at the White House.

Zelensky and Europe have long opposed carving up Ukrainian land, which would violate the Ukrainian constitution.

Ukrainians don’t either, with nearly eight in 10 being against transferring territory to Russia, according to a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

And it seems this is something Trump is all too aware of – on Sunday, he quickly painted Zelensky as an obstacle to the peace talks.

‘President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,’ he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.