Ukrainian forces have wiped out a Russian missile system using a highly coveted High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) supplied by the US.
Reports emerged on Monday of the explosive strike that occurred in the Belgorod region of Russia over the weekend, destroying an S-300/S-400 missile system.
According to the Telegram channel Spy Dossier, the launcher and support vehicles were destroyed by a HIMARS strike using a Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS).
Yaroslav Trofimov, Ukrainian author and journalist, shared the footage to social media platform X, showing the missile system on fire and engulfed in black smoke that billowed into the sky.
He wrote: “Long-delayed US permission to use HIMARS GMLRS to strike across the Russian border starts to bring results. Here is footage of an S-300/S-400 missile system that Russia also uses in surface-to-surface mode to pummel Kharkiv. Location said to be in Belgorod region.”
This comes just days after Ukraine was granted permission to use US rockets at targets inside Russia – which was previously grounds for the US to withhold future aid.
On Friday, Joe Biden‘s administration erased this rule, which was immediately followed by HIMARS strikes on Belgorod, 20 miles north of the Russia–Ukraine border in southern Russia. Potentially dozens of 272kg rockets with 23kg of explosives ranging as far as 57 miles struck the city.
Volodymyr Zelensky wrote before the strike: “This is a welcome step that will allow us now to better protect Ukraine and Ukrainians from Russian terror and attempts to expand the war.”
Russian state media claimed air defence batteries had shot down 14 rockets, but it remains unclear just how much damage the HIMARS strike inflicted on military targets.
Belgorod and its surrounding areas are used as operations bases for Russian forces in the north, which have been attacking Ukrainian towns on the border for nearly a month in what could be a drive toward Kharkiv.
In just three weeks, Russian forces have captured Ukrainian broder villages, but their advances have been halted by the 36th Marine Brigade, 71st Jager Brigade and elite 82nd Air Assault Brigade, among other units.
But this has come at a great cost. According to the Ukrainain Centre for Defence Strategies, the local healthcare system “is in a state of collapse” because of the staggering amount of Russian casualties.
Despite this, there are signs that Russia is preparing for a fresh assault. The centre noted troop movements in the towns of Graivoron, Borisovka and Proletarsky, a few miles west of Belgorod, “possibly indicating the formation of a strike group in Belgorod Oblast.”