A U.S.-supplied M1 Abrams tank used by Ukraine's forces was destroyed in a Russian drone attack, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

As part of American military aid for Kyiv, the U.S. has supplied Ukraine's forces with Abrams tanks, specifically the M1A1 models. There are an estimated 31 vehicles, which each cost around $10 million, in operation along the front line.

However, The Associated Press reported last month that five of the tanks sent to Ukraine have already been lost to Russian action. The latest strike was claimed by the Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday. It said that a reconnaissance drone had located one of the tanks in the Avdiivka area of Donetsk, and it was later destroyed by a Msta-S self-propelled howitzer, state news agency Tass reported.

Newsweek has as yet been unable to verify the Russian claim.

"Artillery crews from the Battlegroup Center used a Krasnopol smart munition to destroy another Abrams M1 tank," the statement said. Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for comment.

The destruction of such a big-ticket item hands Russia's forces a big PR coup, and Russian military bloggers have widely shared unverified videos and images they said showed previous strikes on the tanks.

One in March appeared to show an M1 Abrams smoldering close to the front lines in eastern Ukraine, with the heavily armored American tanks a focus for Russian forces following February's capture of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast.

Russian state media how Moscow's forces had hit three Abrams tanks close to Avdiivka within one week. This includes one that was allegedly "completely destroyed" by a first-person-view (FPV) drone on February 26.

There has been criticism of the tanks' apparent susceptibility to Russian drone warfare, which has made it hard for them to operate without being detected.

Ukrainian crews working on the vehicles told CNN that the tanks lacked armor to stop modern weapons. A month earlier, U.S. military officials told The Associated Press the tanks were being withdrawn by Kyiv from the battlefield because of their vulnerability to Russian drones.

As Newsweek has previously reported, Ukraine is putting steel shields on the 70-ton tanks to protect them from the threat of FPV drones.

Last week, 14 of the M1 Abrams tanks arrived at a NATO-built Army Prepositioned Stocks facility in Powidz, Poland. This was part of an effort to bolster NATO's defenses in Eastern Europe amid heightened tensions between the alliance and Russia. The storage facility will also stock M2 Bradley fighting vehicles and M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers.