Ukraine Strikes Russian Air Defense Battery in Likely HIMARS Attack: ISW

Ukrainian forces destroyed parts of an advanced Russian air defense battery across the border, likely using a U.S.-donated High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), according to a new assessment.

Geo-located imagery published on Monday shows two destroyed launchers, plus a damaged command post, belonging to a Russian S-300 or S-400 air defense system close to the city of Belgorod, the U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said in its latest analysis.

Reports had widely circulated over the weekend that Kyiv had used HIMARS to target Belgorod, shortly after the U.S. partially lifted restrictions on Ukraine using U.S.-supplied weapons against internationally-recognized Russian territory.

U.S. President Joe Biden greenlit Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil with some U.S.-donated weapons to help Kyiv fend off Moscow's weeks-long offensive into the northeastern Kharkiv region, U.S. officials said last week.

The Russian air defense system was around 60 kilometers, or approximately 37 miles, from the front line of fighting in the north of Kharkiv, and another 12 miles from regional capital, Kharkiv City, the ISW noted. This falls within the range of Ukrainian-operated HIMARS, but other multiple-launch rocket systems cannot reach this distance, the think tank said.

Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military and the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to the Czech capital, Prague, on Friday that Ukraine had for weeks requested the go-ahead to use U.S.-provided weapons against forces inside Russia after Moscow opened the new front in Kharkiv. The move, which followed similar signals from several other NATO leaders, was denounced by Moscow as an escalation of the conflict.

Ukraine's Kharkiv region borders Belgorod, a region that has felt the overspill of the more than two years of war in Ukraine. Russian officials regularly report drones over Belgorod and shelling from across the border. Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in several statements since the start of June that "air targets" had been shot down by air defenses covering the region, but did not offer further details. A series of Ukrainian drones also targeted the region in recent days, he said.

To date, the U.S. has furnished Ukraine with 40 HIMARS plus ammunition for the systems, according to the Pentagon.

Kyiv's forces have been using HIMARS since the summer of 2022, and have lauded the impact of the systems, which can be used to fire long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, also provided by Washington. Kyiv cannot fire ATACMS missiles into Russia that would reach key strategic bases deep into several Russian regions, according to rules laid out by the U.S.

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