The Russian military has destroyed a Ukrainian warehouse in Donbass, which allegedly stored several multiple launch rocket systems and more than a dozen armored vehicles, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has claimed. Officials also released an video of the alleged strike .
In a statement on Friday, the ministry said that Moscow’s forces used an Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile to strike the facility in the key regional hub of Kramatorsk, currently occupied by Ukraine, where artillery of Ukraine’s 56th separate motorized infantry brigade was stored.
The missile strike destroyed a US-supplied HIMARS system, five Soviet-era Grad multiple launch rocket systems, five tanks, and up to ten armored combat vehicles, officials added.
The ministry also released black-and-white aerial footage of the strike showing the industrial zone in the city of Kramatorsk, not far from a major railway junction. A large plume of smoke and fire can be seen rising from one of the large buildings in the area.
Iskander missiles – which can carry a payload of 700kg of explosives up to 500km and travel at hypersonic speeds – have been actively used by Russia in the Ukraine conflict to strike Kiev’s staging areas, command and control centers, airfields, defense industrial facilities, and other military targets.
Two recent strikes targeted a tank factory and a foreign mercenary base in Ukraine’s border region of Kharkov, according to the Defense Ministry.