Aha Dua Permata: Russian forces take out more Western hardware

Monday, 25 September 2023

Russian forces take out more Western hardware – Moscow

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian servicemen set the firing position of a Polish 155mm self-propelled tracked gun-howitzer Krab.
©AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff

Over the past 24 hours Russian forces have struck several Western-supplied artillery systems during battles with Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported.

A US-made Paladin self-propelled howitzer was eliminated by counter-battery fire in Zaporozhye Region, the ministry announced in a statement on Sunday.

Two American-supplied M777 howitzers were also destroyed – one in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and another in Kherson Region, it added.

According to the ministry, a Polish Krab self-propelled howitzer was blown up by the Russian military near the city of Kupyansk in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region.

Around a dozen Soviet-era artillery systems have also been neutralized along the front line, it revealed.

In the area near the village of Klescheevka, not far from the city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter was shot down, the ministry continued.

Air defenses have also intercepted three HARM anti-radar missiles and eight projectiles fired by HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.

In the DPR, four Ukrainian attempts to advance were thwarted. In the area near the village of Veselyoe, Russian forces also went on a counterattack and “improved their tactical position,” it said.

Ukraine has been conducting a counteroffensive since early June, but Kiev has so far only reported the capture of a handful of small villages some distance from the main Russian defense lines. Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Ukraine had already lost more than 71,000 troops and over 540 tanks since the beginning of the operation, while failing to achieve any significant gains on the battlefield.

Watch Russian Howitzer Crew Blast Ukrainian Forces

Russian artillery units operating on the battlefields of the Ukrainian conflict continue to show exactly why this particular branch of the armed forces is often referred to as “the God of war.”

This short video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows what appears to be a usual “day at work” for the crew of a Msta-B 152mm towed howitzer deployed in the Ukrainian conflict zone.

Calm and methodical, the soldiers keep their devastating weapon firing, sending shell after shell at the designated targets and wiping out enemy fortifications, armored vehicles and troops – an artillery shell does not discriminate.