Dramatic video shows the moment Ukraine‘s forces pummelled a training ground used by Russian troops with devastating US-supplied cluster bombs, military bloggers claim.
Drone footage posted by various channels on social media was said to to show the aftermath of the blasts in Zaporizhzhia, a southeastern Ukrainian region partly occupied by Vladimir Putin‘s invading army, Newsweek reports.
The undated aerial footage appears to capture military equipment and personnel moving around in an open field before simultaneous explosions ring out, with multiple dust clouds rising above the site.
Ukrainian Telegram channel Division Tivaz was among those that shared the footage, writing: “Destruction of enemy personnel by hitting the training ground with a cluster ATACMS.”
ATACMSs (Army Tactical Missile Systems) are able to strike targets 180 miles away, though the US has resisted calls to allow Kyiv to hit targets deep within Russia.
However, Washington does allow Ukraine to use American-provided weapons in more limited, cross-border strikes to counter attacks by Russian forces.
War blogger War Translated also posted and commented on the clip, on X, and pointed to a quote from a Russian Telegram channel Military Informer claimed, “the enemy is using a system similar to the Russian ‘drone + tactical missile complex.'”
“Fortunately, scaling such strikes is hindered by insufficient missile supplies from Western countries, as well as the still-existing ban on strikes deep within Russian territory,” Military Informer added, as per Newsweek.
Rob Lee, a military analyst and senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, described the footage as showing “a Ukrainian ATACMS cluster munition strike on Russian soldiers at a training range.”
But Special Kherson Cat, a pro-Ukrainian X account suggested that Volodymr Zelensky’s forces may have used a different US-supplied weapon in the strike.
“Some (or actually a lot of) Ukrainian Telegram channels have a strong desire to call every HIMARS cluster munition strike an ATACMS strike, forgetting that M30 cluster missile exists,” the post read.
According to the BBC, US President Joe Biden secretly gave the green light for Ukraine to be supplied with ATACMS back in February. In October Zelensky announced that the ordinance had been used for the first time against Russia.
The latest video has not been independently verified, and Russia is yet to comment. The Kremlin is closely watching Ukraine‘s attempts to get permission to use US-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets within Russia, which the Biden administration has so far been reluctant to sanction.
Putin, who launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, said if it were approved, he would view it as the “direct participation” of Nato countries in the war.