Moscow mocks US with video of captured vehicle sporting American flag

A recent video released by Russian state media shows an M113, an American armored vehicle used by Ukraine, captured by the Russian army and adorned with both a Russian and an American flag.

Russian state media, including the English-language propaganda arm RT, are distributing what’s likely a staged video of a Russian and American flag flying together on the back of a Russian military assault vehicle.

— HuffPost (@huffpost.com) 2025-08-18T17:29:50.264Z

The footage, filmed near the front line in the Zaporijjia region, was widely picked up by pro-Kremlin channels and quickly went viral.

It provoked outrage in Ukraine, where it was seen as a provocation just as Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders were at the White House for peace talks with Donald Trump.

The release of the video also comes just days after Trump rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin at a controversial meeting in Alaska.

According to Kyiv and its allies, this grotesque staging seeks to exploit the diplomatic context in order to diminish the importance of Western support for the peace negotiations.