Huge Explosion as HIMARS Strike Russian Buk-M2: Ukraine

Ukraine has taken out a Russian Buk air defense system in the contested eastern Donetsk region of the country using U.S.-supplied HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, new footage appears to show, as Russia steps up its aerial bombardment of Ukraine in the first days of the new year.

Ukrainian special forces fired on one of Russia's Buk-M2 anti-aircraft missile systems and a radar with a HIMARS Kyiv said on Monday, sharing footage it said showed the hit on the Russian medium-range air-defense system.

"The enemy's equipment was destroyed," Ukraine's special forces said in a brief caption to the video clip.

Newsweek could not independently verify the clip, and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Ukraine frequently shares footage it says shows the work of the U.S.-donated HIMARS, which have been in the country since June 2022. The U.S. has provided 39 HIMARS to Kyiv in its various military aid packages to date.

Both sides have made targeting the other's all-important air defense networks a priority, not least ground-based systems. "The efforts of both Russia and Ukraine to overcome their adversary's ground-based air defense systems continue to be one of the most important contests of the war," the British Defense Ministry said on December 3, 2023.

Ukraine destroyed two of Russia's valuable Buk air defense systems in the south and east of the war-torn country within a week in late November, Ukrainian officials in early December.

The Buk's variants can be either tracked or wheeled and are designed to take down enemy aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and other targets, according to the U.S. military.

Since it went into service, the Buk missile system has been repeatedly upgraded, and Russia's armed forces started using the Buk-M2—also known as the SA-17 Grizzly—in 2008.

The Buk-M2 can engage aerial targets from a distance of between 3 kilometers, or just under 2 miles, and 45 kilometers (28 miles), according to Russian state exporter, Rosoboronexport.

It is crucial for Ukraine to take out Russia's air-defense systems, as well as the radars that help Moscow locate Kyiv's own ground-based air defenses. Ukraine appears to be zeroing in on Russia's radar systems with its special forces, HIMARS and drones, James Black, assistant director of the Defense and Security research group at the European branch of the RAND think tank, told Newsweek in November.

Taking out Russian radars ultimately restricts Moscow's ability to detect and target Ukrainian assets, he added.

On Tuesday, Kyiv said Russia had launched a renewed missile barrage on the capital and the northeastern city of Kharkiv in the latest onslaught of the war, now approaching the 2-year mark.

Moscow launched a "mass attack" with several types of missiles and strike drones, and Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 72 incoming targets, including 10 hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and 62 cruise missiles, Ukraine's air force said on Tuesday.

On December 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the Kremlin had launched its most intensive strikes since the Kremlin invaded the country in February 2022. Close to 160 missiles and strike drones were launched at Ukraine in the barrage, he said.

The missile strikes early on Tuesday "repeated the attack of December 29," the head of Ukraine's air force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk, said in a statement.

Ukraine responded to the December 29 strikes with what Russia called an "indiscriminate combined strike" on the Russian border city of Belgorod.

Moscow then said it had retaliated with another round of strikes, including an assault on "decision-making centers and military facilities" in Kharkiv.

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