What Is RM-70 Vampire? Eastern European Menace Haunting Russia's Belgorod

Russia has destroyed tens of rockets fired from Ukrainian territory by Czech-made Vampire multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) over the weekend, according to Moscow, as clashes rage on along the border between the two countries.

On Monday morning, Russia's Defense Ministry said it had cut off a Ukrainian attack on Belgorod by an RM-70 Vampire MLRS. Russian air defenses "destroyed 10 rockets in the air" over the border region at approximately 8:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET), Moscow said. At a similar time on Sunday, Russia said it had shot down nine Vampire rockets over the Belgorod region, which borders northeastern Ukraine.

In a separate statement on Sunday, the Kremlin said its forces had shot down 23 Vampire rockets in the past day, and destroyed one Vampire MLRS combat vehicle close to the Belgorod border with Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces have been using the Vampire MLRS since the early days of the war. They are standard artillery systems that have been fired frequently in cross-border attacks, said Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher with the War Studies Department at King's College London.

The systems are used for "concentrated bursts of fire," launching up to 40 rockets in under a minute, she told Newsweek. They are typically used to zero in on military equipment or troops, rather than hardened targets, she added.

The Vampire is built on the chassis of an 8x8 truck, allowing the system to quickly vacate the position it fired from before the enemy can locate it and return fire, Miron said.

Russia has reported consistent artillery fire into the Belgorod region that it ascribed to Ukrainian forces throughout the more than two years of war. Shelling has become a commonplace occurrence, and the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Monday that two people had been killed in shelling across the border in the village of Nikolskoe, south of the city of Belgorod.

Ukraine may be making more use of the Vampire MLRS in recent weeks because of the scarcity of 155mm artillery ammunition, Miron suggested. The Vampire MLRS uses 122mm rockets.

"It could be assumed that Ukraine has more of the shells of 122mm caliber which is why the heavy reliance on Vampire," she said.

On Sunday, Moscow also said that it had "stopped all attempts to penetrate into the border territory of the Russian Federation" around the Belgorod village of Kozinka by what it called "sabotage and reconnaissance groups of Ukrainian militants."

Pro-Ukrainian Russian partisans claimed to have seized control of the Belgorod border village of Gorkovsky, and its administrative building, on Sunday. Gorkovsky is east of Kozinka. Russia's government made no reference to Russian partisan groups nor the village of Gorkovsky in public statements over the weekend.

Several Russian groups operating from Ukraine, including the Freedom for Russia Legion and the Siberian Battalion, collectively launched an incursion into Belgorod and the Kursk border region from Ukrainian territory on March 12. Russia's Defense Ministry said it had crushed the cross-border rebellion, claiming the fighters were Ukrainian.

Kyiv said following the action on March 12 that the groups were operating independently of Ukraine, but later said Ukraine would support the anti-Kremlin groups.

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