Russian troops reportedly destroyed a storehouse storing Harpoon missiles provided by the West using long-range air-launched missiles, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. A missile launcher and a transport loading vehicle for a HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) were allegedly reportedly destroyed in a separate attack, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The report is released as Ukraine gains proficiency with NATO-standard weaponry, notably multiple HIMARS that the US has provided over the past few weeks. With the aid of its high-precision missile systems, Ukraine has attacked several farther-reaching Russian targets, including two munitions storage facilities, just in the past week.
Last week, the United States supplied eight more HIMARS to Ukraine, and there are still four more on the way.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that “cases of desertion are spreading” and detailed the “substantial losses in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
In the statement, it was also stated that the Russian military “continues to attack at military facilities on Ukrainian territory.”
In one of the buildings of an industrial firm in the city of Odessa, high-precision long-range air-launched missiles were used to destroy Harpoon anti-ship missiles that NATO countries had delivered to Ukraine.
According to Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the hit “destroyed a storage warehouse for Harpoon anti-ship missiles provided to Ukraine by NATO countries in one of the buildings of an industrial firm in the city of Odessa.”
According to Konashenkov, “up to 65 nationalists and more than 10 units of special vehicles were destroyed as a result of the strike on the deployment point of the 97th battalion of the 60th motorised infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of the settlement of Novodanilovka, Zaporozhye region.”
If the claims are true, the strikes represent a good development for the Russian military, especially given the recent “operational pause” and multiple devastating attacks by Ukrainian forces utilising HIMARS.
Additionally terrible news for Ukraine is the loss of Harpoon missiles. The Harpoon missiles, one of the most popular and efficient weapons in its class, have been utilised by Ukrainian forces on a number of occasions, which undoubtedly caught Russia’s attention. 30 armies from around the world, including those from Chile, India, Israel, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan, employ them.
