An M270 multiple launch rocket system provided to Kiev by its Western backers was destroyed in Sumy Region, Ukraine, according to a video published by the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday.
The system, a heavier tracked counterpart to HIMARS capable of firing both ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles and smaller high-precision projectiles, was identified by a surveillance drone near the village of Bezdrik, approximately 25km from the border with Russia’s Kursk Region.
The location was struck by a ballistic missile launched from a Russian Iskander-M system. A large explosion and subsequent fire were observed in the area after the strike. According to estimates from the Russian military, the attack destroyed both the launcher and its crew.
HIMARS launchers, as well as their heavier tracked counterpart, the M270, have been supplied to Ukraine by the US, UK, and Germany since the summer of 2022. Multiple systems have been destroyed during the hostilities, with at least four eliminated since the start of the incursion into Kursk Region earlier this month, according to Defense Ministry estimates.
These systems have been widely celebrated in Ukraine as a powerful weapon due to their ability to conduct high-precision long-range strikes, including with controversial anti-personnel shrapnel munitions. The launchers have been systematically used by Kiev against civilian targets in Donbass.
On Friday, the Ukrainian military used Western-made munitions against Russia’s Kursk Region for the first time, which Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described as “terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime against civilian targets.” The Ukrainian attack “completely destroyed” a bridge over the Seym River in the region’s Glushkovsky District, resulting in the deaths of volunteers who were assisting local residents with evacuation.