Video Shows Kyiv's First Upgraded HIMARS Cluster Strike on Russian Troops

Ukraine's forces have for the first time used U.S-supplied cluster munition rockets on the battlefield to target Russian troops, with video of the purported attacks going viral.

As part of its military assistance to Kyiv, the U.S. has already given an estimated 20 HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) to Ukraine, which have helped its battlefield fight against Russian aggression. The systems can launch M30 GMLRS (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) cluster munitions.

The X account Ukraine Battle Map, which gives updates about Russia's full-scale invasion, posted a two-minute video that was touted as visual proof of the first use of the cluster munitions rockets against Moscow's forces. Newsweek has as yet been unable to verify the footage and has contacted the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries about the video, which as of Monday morning had received more than 118,000 views.

Set to the song "Zitti e Buoni" by Italian rock band Måneskin, the clip shows what looks like drone footage of explosions in a field and a Russian soldier being rushed along a road on a stretcher to a vehicle by his comrades.

"For the first time in the war, there is video confirmation of Ukraine using HIMARS M30 Cluster Munition GMLRS Rockets against Russian Soldiers," Ukraine Battle Map said next to the clip posted Sunday. It said the strike took place around 13 miles from the front line in the south near Burchak, Zaporizhzhia region, on a group of "at least seven Russian soldiers and possibly a vehicle."

The post was shared by other X users, including Trent Telenko, who posts about the war. He wrote, "Here is a battlefield demonstration of the M30 GMLRS cluster munition over the M31A1 alternate warhead unitary munition."

"Fragmentation warheads are of inferior lethality to cluster munition warheads of the same mass. And always have been," Telenko added.

Ukraine Battle Map had earlier posted on June 5 how M30 rockets, of which the U.S. had a stockpile of fewer than 1,950, had been used in an attack on Belgorod. This city in Western Russia by the frontier with Ukraine has been the scene of frequent cross-border strikes.

Army Recognition.com described the purported strike three weeks ago as a "notable development in the military tactics and capabilities being utilized in the region." The outlet said the M30 GMLRS, which is 13-feet long and weighs 676 pounds, has 404 M101 submunitions that disperse over a wide area and offer "significant capabilities for modern warfare, particularly in delivering precision strikes over long distances."

Meanwhile, the Astra Telegram channel said Ukraine had used HIMARS to strike at targets in the Kursk region on June 22, including the building of the FSB border department.

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