Ukrainians Down Russian Cruise Missile With M2 Browning Machine Gun: Video

Ukraine has intercepted a Russian cruise missile by using a Browning heavy machine gun, new footage appears to show, as Moscow peppers Ukraine with dozens of missiles in renewed overnight strikes.

Ukrainian mobile fire groups in the north of the country “managed to destroy several enemy cruise missiles,” Lt. Gen. Serhiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of the armed forces of Ukraine overseeing mobile air defenses in northern Ukraine and Kyiv, said in a post to the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday.

“One of them was destroyed by a Browning machine gun,” Nayev said.

Ukraine has a network of air defenses, ranging from the U.S.-provided Patriots that have intercepted Russian hypersonic missiles to large-caliber machine guns that Kyiv’s fighters have often used to shoot down the Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones that Moscow frequently launches at the war-torn country.

Overnight bombardments of cruise missiles and drones have long been a key feature of Russian attacks on Ukraine. In recent days, Kyiv’s air force had reported several Shahed drone strikes, but said early on Tuesday that Moscow had launched a “combined missile attack” on Ukraine overnight.

In the brief and dark clip posted by Nayev, a Ukrainian fighter appears to fire rounds towards the sky, before a bright flash and sparks are visible. It was not possible to independently verify the video, and it is not clear whether the clip was recorded between Monday evening and the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military for comment via email.

“It is certainly possible to shoot down a cruise missile with a machine gun,” although it is very difficult to do in practice, according to military and weapons expert, David Hambling.

There have been several reports throughout the nearly two years of war, suggesting Ukrainian soldiers have succeeded in intercepting Russian cruise missiles with a machine gun.

Earlier this month, Nayev awarded a medal to a Ukrainian fighter in the Kyiv region reported to have knocked a cruise missile from the sky with an M2 Browning. Back in December 2022, a Ukrainian commander praised one of their fighters for the same feat, saying that “it’s almost impossible to hit a missile with a machine gun but it was done.”

“A cruise missile is a small, very slow-flying jet aircraft with a lot of explosive on board and a single bullet can easily cause catastrophic damage,” Hambling told Newsweek. The hardest part is actually hitting the incoming cruise missile from a distance as it travels at hundreds of miles per hour, he said.

Many of the modern anti-aircraft guns like the self-propelled German-made Flakpanzers, have radar-guidance for this reason, Hambling argued. “But if you have enough machine guns putting enough lead into the air and enough missile targets, sooner or later, someone will get lucky.”

Russia launched a total of 41 missiles, four of which were air defense missiles fired from the border Belgorod region on the northeastern Ukrainian Kharkiv region, Kyiv’s military said on Tuesday.

The Kremlin fired 15 Kh-101, Kh-555 and Kh-55 cruise missiles from strategic bombers, and eight Kh-22 missiles at the Kharkiv and nearby Sumy region, the Ukrainian air force said. Kyiv registered 12 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, and Russian Su-34 jets launched two Kh-59 guided missiles, the military added.

Ukraine destroyed all 15 of the Kh-101, Kh-555 and Kh-55 missiles, five of the Iskander-M ballistic missiles and one of the Kh-59 missiles, the air force said.

Nayev warned in early January that Ukraine had enough ammunition for its man-portable air defense systems to “withstand the next few powerful attacks.”

Russia is attempting to deplete Ukraine’s air defenses, meaning Kyiv’s priority is keeping them functional with ammunition supplies, Nayev said.

“Of course, we would like more missiles for Patriots and the systems themselves,” he added.

But Ukraine’s air defenses can’t work without interceptor missiles: “In the medium and long term, we need help from Western countries to replenish the missile stock,” Nayev said.