Russian forces have used a thermobaric rocket system to wipe out fortified Ukrainian defensive positions in the southern part of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Defense Ministry reported on Monday.
The military released footage of what it said was a strike delivered with a TOS-1A Solntsepyok weapon in which projectiles are shown causing massive explosions on the ground.
An upgraded version of the same system, called the TOS-2 Tosochka, is also in service. It uses a wheeled chassis, can fire more advanced rockets and has other improvements. In addition to the ground-mobile systems, the Russian military has thermobaric aerial bombs in its arsenal, which it has reportedly used in the Ukraine conflict to devastating effect.
Earlier this month, the Russian Defense Ministry released a similar video showing a TOS-1A strike on Kiev’s positions in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region in the northern part of the front.
The Russian military has been rapidly gaining ground in the past several months, particularly after Kiev launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region in August.
Officials in Kiev claimed they were seeking to force Moscow to divert troops from other parts of the front and that the captured land could serve as a bargaining chip in eventual peace talks. Reuters reported on Sunday, however, that Ukraine had lost more than 40% of the territory they managed to capture in the initial push.
Ukrainian troops have suffered over 35,300 casualties in the incursion and lost hundreds of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other valuable military equipment, including systems donated by Kiev’s Western backers, according to Moscow.