Russian drone strikes rocket launcher in Ukraine (VIDEO)
A Russian Air Force drone has destroyed a Ukrainian multiple-launch rocket system by hitting it with a precision munition from an altitude of 3,000 meters, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday as it published the video from the mission.
The footage shows a Russian drone taking off from an airfield before apparently switching to the drone’s black-and-white camera showing the rocket launcher opening fire on a target. The Ukrainian hardware then attempts to leave the firing position but gets struck while moving along a road.
Drones involved in Russia’s offensive in Ukraine are used for reconnaissance, fire adjustment, and airstrikes, the ministry has added in its statement. Since February 24, Russian forces claim to have successfully struck almost 3,700 Ukrainian military targets. Kiev has not provided any data on military targets hit by the Russian forces but instead confirmed that some 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers have died in the conflict so far.
Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.
Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
