WATCH Russian missile blow up Ukrainian military HQ

Russia has conducted a powerful missile strike on a Ukrainian military headquarters in Donbass, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, releasing footage of the attack.

In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said Moscow’s forces had destroyed the command-and-control center of the Ukrainian 63rd Separate Mechanized Brigade in Krasny Lyman. The town lies around 30km northeast of the strategic regional city Slavyansk, an important logistics hub which is now in the rear of the front line.

The strike was conducted with an Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile and destroyed the personnel inside the HQ, as well as two drone command-and control vehicles, ten UAVs, more than 300 FPV drones, an antenna mast device, and three all-terrain vehicles, according to Russian officials. 

The video released by the ministry shows aerial footage of several houses in the settlement, one of which is seen being struck by a rocket, sending a shockwave in all directions and a plume of smoke into the air. The roof of one of the buildings – which the ministry said was the drone control station – was set ablaze and several Ukrainian military vehicles can be seen pulling up beside it.

Russia routinely uses hypersonic Iskander missiles – which can carry a 700kg payload up to 500km – to pound Ukrainian targets, including those far from the front line. Earlier this week, the Defense Ministry released a video purporting to show a successful missile strike on a facility in Kharkov Region, which it said housed Western “instructors and mercenaries,” around 50 of whom were killed in the attack.

Russia has repeatedly warned that it considers foreign military personnel and equipment used by Ukraine to be “legitimate targets.” At the same time, Moscow maintains that it only targets military facilities and not civilians.