One of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers the US has provided to Kiev has been destroyed in the Sumy Region of Ukraine, according to a high-resolution video published by the Russian Defense Ministry.
In a move described by Moscow as an act of terrorism, several thousand troops crossed over from Sumy into Russia’s Kursk Region last week, seeking to relieve pressure on the Donbass front and to seize some Russian territory as a bargaining chip. Moscow has responded with intense air and artillery strikes against the invaders.
The video, released on Thursday, shows drone footage of the M142 HIMARS firing a couple of missiles from a road somewhere in Sumy Region. The unit then moves down the road and into woods to reload.
Within minutes, an Iskander ballistic missile strikes the woods, destroying the Ukrainian rocket launcher. The video showed secondary explosions of HIMARS ammunition as well.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the strike destroyed the launcher, a six-rocket reloading pod, and two service vehicles of the Ukrainian artillery unit.
The M142 is mounted on a wheeled truck chassis and can fire volleys of GPS-guided rockets, converted aircraft bombs, or long-range ATACMS ballistic missiles. The US has provided Ukraine with at least 40 launchers, according to information released by the Pentagon.
Ukrainian troops in Nazi helmets taunt Russian pensioner (VIDEO)
The incident, presumably filmed by troops themselves, appears to have occurred in Kursk Region where Kiev launched an incursion
A video is circulating in social media showing Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers wearing Nazi-style helmets harass an elderly villager in what appears to be Russia’s Kursk Region, where Kiev has been conducting a cross-border assault over the past week. The clip is believed to have been filmed by the soldiers themselves.
The incident appears to have taken place several days ago, but footage of it began to spread online on Thursday. The Mash Telegram channel has suggested that the video was shot on August 11 in the village of Zaoleshenka in Sudhansky district.
In the clip, Ukrainian soldiers can be seen filming a road sign pointing to the city of Belgorod and Korenevo, a settlement in Kursk Region.
The camera then pans to what appears to be a camouflaged SUV equipped with a machine gun and a soldier wearing a helmet resembling those of the Schutzstaffel (SS) - responsible for the most brutal atrocities committed by Nazi Germany during World War II.
The video then shows several pieces of destroyed heavy equipment before panning to an elderly man. The soldiers then address the pensioner as “Russian Ivan” and start berating him in German, stating that “all Russians are pigs” and telling him to go “drink vodka”. The Russian man said he is 74 years old and complained that he has been lost for five days.
According to the Telegram channel Mash, the elderly man, who has reportedly been identified as Alexander Gusarov, has not been seen in ten days. His relatives said that the last time they spoke to him was on August 6. It’s suspected that Alexander may have been killed.
Meanwhile, the SHOT Telegram channel has claimed that it has identified the Ukrainian soldier wearing the Nazi helmet as 38-year-old Vasyl Danilyuk, a resident of the city of Horodenka in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankovsk Region.
Russian State Duma member Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democrat (LDPR) party, has since announced a five million ruble ($56,000) reward for the capture of the Ukrainian fighters who harassed the retiree. He stressed that Russians will not tolerate Nazis on their land and called on all doubters of Ukrainian Nazism to “open their eyes.”
“All those who speak about ‘imaginary’ Nazism in Ukraine should now choke on their own stupidity,” Slutsky said.
Kiev launched its incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region on August 6. Russia’s Defense Ministry has since stated that the Ukrainian advance has been halted but Kiev’s troops still hold a number of settlements.
Since the start of the operation, Kiev has lost some 2,640 servicemen and several hundred military hardware units, including 37 tanks and 32 APCs, according to Moscow’s estimates.
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