HIMARS Strike Kills 'High Ranking' Russian Officers in Occupied Skadovsk

Senior Russian officers were killed in a Ukrainian High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) attack on Skadovsk in the Russian-occupied part of the southern Kherson region, according to reports.

At least five people were killed and a further 10 were wounded as a result of the missile strike by Ukraine, the region's emergency situations ministry said. The U.S.-funded Radio Liberty, citing Russian and Ukrainian sources, reported that several of the casualties were high-ranking Russian officers, and that Kyiv's HIMARS attack had destroyed the second floor of a building.

The U.S.-supplied HIMARS have allowed Ukraine to destroy Russia's most advanced anti-aircraft missile systems. Last month, footage purportedly showed the aftermath of a HIMARS strike on a Russian battalion.

Ukraine's National Resistance Center said that "according to unverified information, the strike hit a temporary deployment point" of the Russian FSB security service.

Newsweek couldn't independently verify the reports, and contacted the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Russia for comment by email.

Volodymyr Saldo, who was appointed by the Kremlin to lead Ukraine's southern Kherson region after it was seized during Russian President Vladimir Putin's war, said on his Telegram channel that Ukraine launched two missiles at about 10 a.m. local time, and one was downed by air-defense systems.

Russia's Investigative Committee said on Thursday that it had launched a criminal investigation into the attack.

"According to the investigation, on November 9, Ukrainian armed forces launched a rocket attack on the city of Skadovsk, Kherson region, as a result of which a civilian object was damaged. There are deaths, and the injured are receiving the necessary medical care," the committee said.

"The investigation is establishing all the circumstances of the incident and the persons from among the Ukrainian armed formations involved in the organization and execution of this crime."

The reported attack comes just days after three Russian colonels were reportedly killed when Ukrainian forces fired a missile on the headquarters of the Russian Dnieper military group in the Kherson region.

The Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, which purports to have inside information from Russian security forces, and Public Reserve Stugna, an organization created to support Ukraine's Stugna special forces battalion, said the three officers were killed on November 1 as a result of an attack on the base using U.S.-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).

ATACMS are capable of reaching targets 100 miles away, or even further.

The Ukrainian strike on the headquarters belonging to the Dnipro Group of Forces was also reported by the Institute for the Study of War's (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, last week.

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