Ukraine Video Shows Three Prized Russian Buk Systems Being Hit in a Week

Ukraine's military has published a video that it says shows its forces destroying three Russian Buk air defense systems in a single week.

"In one week, three enemy 'Buk' air defense systems were hit" near Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the press service of Ukraine's Special Operations Forces (SOF) said in a post on its Telegram channel, sharing a one-minute clip of the efforts.

The video appears to be shot from a Ukrainian airborne drone and shows targets being struck from a distance, causing huge flames and plumes of smoke to rise into the air upon impact.

Newsweek could not independently verify when or where the footage was filmed, and Kyiv's battlefield claims. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

The press service said Russian President Vladimir Putin's military lost three Buk air defense systems "with two 9C36 detection and targeting stations" on the Donetsk front lines, "thanks to the professional actions of SOF operators."

"Operators from the SOF's 3rd Separate Special Forces regiment detected and adjusted the fire of Defense Forces' missile and artillery units on Russian targets," it said. "As a result of fire damage, one missile system was completely destroyed, two more were disabled and cannot be restored."

The press service added: "The hunt for enemy targets continues!"

Earlier this week, Ukraine's Defense Ministry posted a brief clip it said showed one of the Buk air defense systems being taken out. Ukraine said the footage was filmed by the country's 14th Separate Regiment.

Kyiv "destroyed" one of the Buk systems at an unspecified location, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

And on Monday, Ukrainian special forces said they had destroyed one of the prized systems and a radar with a U.S.-provided HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

The Ukrainian Military Center, a public organization, said that in September 2023 alone, Ukrainian forces struck five of the Buk systems in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region with precision strikes.

The Buk is designed to be deployed against enemy aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles, tactical ballistic and aircraft missiles, and guided bombs, in heavy enemy counter fire and radio jamming conditions, according to specialist website Army Technology.

The upgraded version of the system—the Buk-M2—has been used by Russia's military since 2008, and is capable of simultaneously engaging up to 24 targets. It can engage aerial targets from a distance of between 3 kilometers, or just under 2 miles, and 45 kilometers (28 miles), Newsweek previously reported.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.