Ukraine's armed forces have released footage they said shows strikes using the U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launcher against Russian targets.
On Saturday, Ukraine's General Staff shared a minute-long clip on social media that begins with a drone shot, from a distance, of locations where it indicated four Msta-S self-propelled howitzers were positioned in a field.
The video then segues into different angles of a Lockhead-designed High Mobility Artillery Rocket System firing into the air. It is not clear if there are several launchers or just different shots of the one system that has been effective in Ukraine's war effort.
Drone footage shows explosions and smoke going into the air at the purported locations of the vehicles and what appear to be fleeing troops.
"Disposal of Russian SAU Msta-C," the armed forces wrote in a Facebook post next to the clip, adding, "We will stand up and overcome!"
As of Saturday, Russian forces had lost 257 Msta howitzers since the start of their full-scale invasion, according to the website Oryx which tracks equipment losses on both sides.
Newsweek could not independently verify battlefield claims and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
No information about the location or date of the latest footage is known. Newsweek has emailed the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for comment.
Earlier in the month, Ukraine's armed forces released footage it said showed Ukrainian artillerymen used HIMARS to destroy a battery of Russian howitzers in the Donetsk region.
Other footage shared on social media on Saturday also purports to show Ukrainian strikes. One clip tweeted by the Ukraine Weapons Tracker account showed what it said was a Russian Tigr-M infantry mobility vehicle destroyed on the left bank of the Dnieper River, just outside Oleshky in Kherson Oblast.
Another clip allegedly shows aerial footage of Russian military vehicles being hit from the air by the Ukrainian military intelligence unit 130th ORB.
It comes as British officials said on Saturday that Ukraine has "almost certainly" restarted deploying personnel to the east bank of the Dnieper River near the ruined Antonovskiy Bridge where fighting has intensified.
Combat around the bridgehead has been made difficult by the flooding and destruction caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam in June, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said.
Ukraine accused Russia of "ecocide" and destroying the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant and the dam on June 6.
The British intelligence update added that Russian forces holding the Dnieper's east bank includes elements of its 7th Guards Air Assault Division, a part of the Dnipro Group of Forces (DGF). The Defense Ministry of the U.K. said it is "highly likely" that parts of the DGF have been reallocated to reinforce the Zaporizhzhia sector.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
