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HIMARS Strike Russian Positions in Luhansk, Windows Blown Out: Video

Newsweek 2 days ago

Ukraine has used HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) to strike at Russian targets, as video of the use of U.S.-supplied weapons in a city in the Luhansk region in which windows were blown out purportedly showed.

In what seem to be separate incidents, a Russian-installed official in the occupied Donetsk oblast of Ukraine said several people were injured in HIMARS shelling by Kyiv's forces.

Washington has supplied Kyiv with an estimated 20 HIMARS systems, which have helped Ukraine's battlefield fight against Russian aggression. Clips on social media in recent months showing their use have been widely shared.

For instance, on February 20, Ukrainian forces launched two HIMARS missiles against a Russian military training ground in Donetsk's Volnovakha district where units of Russia's 36th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade were stationed, killing at least 60, the BBC reported.

A viral clip purporting to show the weapon system's latest impact was posted on the Telegram channel of East European news outlet Nexta.

The short video posted Sunday was filmed from the window of what appears to be a residential building that was said to be in the city of Pervomaisk, in the occupied Luhansk region.

An explosion and a loud bang are heard, and the person filming the daytime scene can be heard shouting in alarm as black smoke pours into the air and shards of glass in the room can be seen.

Amid expletives, a voice can be heard saying, "Everything is flying out, the windows, everything."

Nexta said that the strike "targeted a concentration of Russian troops" and that "the reaction of the author of the video eloquently describes the full power of the strike."

Meanwhile, in the Donetsk city of Yasynuvata, a child born in 2020 and a teenager suffered moderate injuries following a HIMARS strike, according to the Moscow-installed head of the occupied region, Denis Pushilin.

HIMARS
A M142 HIMARS launches a rocket in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on May 18, 2023. Ukraine reportedly used the weapons systems against Russian targets on June 30, 2024.

Pushilin said in a Telegram post on Monday that there was another HIMARS strike in the region's Petrovsky district.

He said four Russian emergency ministries employees were injured, a fire broke out, and a residential building was damaged, adding in his post that Ukraine's armed forces carried out attacks with 155 mm caliber artillery.

Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian and Russian Defense Ministries for comment on the claims which have not been independently verified.

Last month, a video purportedly showed the first time Ukraine's forces had used HIMARS M30 Cluster Munition GMLRS Rockets against Russian soldiers, according to the X account Ukraine Battle Map.

The strike allegedly took place around 13 miles near Burchak, in the Zaporizhzhia region on the southern front line, on a group of "at least seven Russian soldiers and possibly a vehicle," the account said.

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