Ukraine's military on Friday shared a video of its forces using a U.S.-made HIMARS to destroy a Russian rocket system.
The press service for the Command of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces posted the clip on its Facebook and YouTube pages. The various branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine frequently share such footage of its units successfully taking out Russian equipment and weapons, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) have been featured in many of the videos.
The United States first began providing Kyiv with HIMARS during the early months of the invasion Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on Ukraine in February 2022. The long-range weapons have been widely praised by Ukrainian officials who have credited HIMARS with bolstering the country's ability to fight against Putin's military.
The footage—filmed from an aerial perspective—shows a Russian Grad multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) on the ground in Ukraine before it is rocked with a massive explosion as a result of a HIMARS missile.
The Grad is then seen engulfed in smoke before its charred remains are briefly seen as the video ends.
"A missile fired from HIMARS will reach wherever a 155-mm projectile cannot," the Kyiv airborne's press service wrote in its Facebook caption, according to an English translation by the Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda.
The post added: "Effective cooperation between the aerial reconnaissance of a separate artillery brigade of the Air Assault Forces and the HIMARS team to destroy an enemy Grad. This is yet another example of how the slogan 'Together to Victory' is not just words, but actions."
The Facebook and YouTube posts for the video did not indicate where or when the HIMARS strike took place. Ukrainska Pravda reported Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of a formation of Ukraine's ground forces in the Tavria region, said his soldiers had destroyed a Russian Grad system as well as a "costly" Borisoglebsk electronic warfare station on Wednesday.
Newsweek could not confirm the Grad system destroyed by Tarnavskyi's troops was the same one seen in the airborne forces' video, and Russia's Ministry of Defense was contacted for contact via email.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian forces have reportedly encircled Avdiivka, a small town in the eastern Donetsk region that has seen fierce fighting for the past month.
Putin's military has devoted thousands of troops along with tanks and other weapons to its efforts of seizing the town. The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in its most recent daily assessment of the war that Russia's forces reportedly made advances in Avdiivka's direction on Thursday.
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Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
