Ukrainian forces took out one of Russia’s “Strela-10” Arrow air defense systems in a drone attack on Sunday, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR).
Video of the attack was shared to Telegram on Tuesday by HUR, which said that fighters of Kyiv’s special operations unit detected the defense system along the front lines. The roughly 30-second footage shows the moment that Ukraine’s first-person-view (FPV) drones struck the system, which went up in smoke after getting struck.
“On this day, the enemy anti-aircraft guns were just celebrating the day of the air defense forces of Russia, so they received a proper greeting,” HUR wrote in the Telegram post, referring to Russia’s Air Defense Forces Day, celebrated on the second Sunday of April.
“As a result of the attack, the Russian ‘arrow’ no longer fires—the complex has been neutralized!” HUR added. “Glory to Ukraine!”
Russia’s 9K35 Strela-10 is a Soviet-era surface-to-air missile system that can hit aerial targets at short range. According to Dutch open-source intelligence site Oryx, which keeps a running tally of Russia’s equipment losses since the start of the war, 44 of Moscow’s Strela-10 systems have either been destroyed or captured by Ukraine. Oryx’s database appears to have been last updated at the end of last month.
Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images
Kyiv’s Special Operation Forces (SSO) also reported taking out one of Russia’s T-90 tanks along the Donetsk front on Tuesday. In a video shared to SSO’s Telegram page, footage from an FPV drone shows that the tank was tracked while it was traveling down a nearby road. The attack caused the tank to burst into flames, and later footage shows Russian soldiers moving out of the damaged T-90 to a different armored vehicle.
“During the reconnaissance operations in the Donetsk direction, the operators of the 3rd SSO regiment discovered the enemy tank ‘T-90,’ which worked on the positions of the Defense Forces,” read the Telegram post.
“With the help of an FPV drone, the operators of the ‘Medoid’ tactical group hit the target,” SSO added. “The tank was immobilized, the commander and gunner were wounded.”
Newsweek was unable to independently confirm either report, and an email was sent to Russia’s Ministry of Defense for comment Tuesday night.
The videos come as Russia has held the momentum along the front lines against Ukraine for much of this year. Geolocated footage reviewed by the Institute for the Study of War U.S.-based think tank showed that Moscow pushed the point of conflict deeper into Ukrainian territory in the Donetsk region as of Sunday.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.