Russia claims Ukraine launched missile from US-supplied HIMARS, killing 40 POWs

Russia's defence ministry on July 29, Friday asserted that the Ukrainian military forces have fired a US-supplied long-range missile in the separatist-held territory that has claimed the lives of at least 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war. At least 75 others were critically injured. Moscow's MoD claimed that the Ukrainian forces had fired the rocket from the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) that landed on the colony in the village of Yelenovka.

"A missile strike from the US-made multiple launch rocket system [HIMARS] was carried out on a pre-trial detention centre in the area of the settlement of Olenivka, where Ukrainian military prisoners of war, including fighters from the Azov battalion, are being held," Russia's defence ministry said at a press conference on July 28. 

A Marine Corps Sgt. Justin Russell, a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, a section chief with Kilo Battery, 2nd Battalion, 14th Marines looks out over a firing range at Fort Stewart, Ga. during a training exercise. Credit: Associated Press

More than 50 Russian military targets struck with US-supplied HIMARS

Ukraine's ministry of defence admitted in a statement that the US-supplied advanced weapons systems M142 HIMARS were used to strike more than 50 Russian military targets and have proven to be the game changer during the ongoing conflict. The HIMARS systems were provided by the Biden administration and similar M270s were supplied by ally Britain to Kyiv as a part of the billion-dollar package of military aid to bolster the precision-strike capability of Ukraine's armed forces.

HIMARS have a longer range as compared with the Russian forces' Soviet-designed Smerch, Uragan and Tornado multiple rocket launchers. US Department of Defense had also said in its intelligence that US-supplied long-range HIMARS to Ukraine has been having a significant impact on Ukraine's war effort against Russian aggression. It allows Ukrainian armed forces to target multiple, precision-guided rockets in retaliation to the incoming fire from Russia's side, Pentagon meanwhile said. 

As Russia's MoD noted that Ukrainian forces have targetted the occupied Russian territory with HIMARS, head of the DPR Denis Pushilin said that the death toll has now risen to 47 and a search has been ongoing for the survivors. Those injured, have sustained critical wounds that appear difficult to treat, Pushilin stressed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had claimed that Ukraine has promised not to use long-range missiles to strike targets in Russia. "The Ukrainians have given us assurances that they will not use these systems against targets on Russian territory," Blinken had said at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.