HIMARS attacks Russian positions in Luhansk, windows are blown out: Video

Ukraine has used highly mobile artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to attack Russian targets, according to a video of the US-supplied weapons being used in a town in the Luhansk region, allegedly blowing out windows.

A Russian-appointed official in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region said several people were injured by HIMARS shelling by Kyiv forces in an apparently separate incident.

Washington has supplied Kyiv with an estimated 20 HIMARS systems that have helped Ukraine fight Russian aggression, and clips showing their use have been widely shared on social media in recent months.

On February 20, Ukrainian forces fired two HIMARS missiles at a Russian military training ground in the Volnovakha district of Donetsk, where units of the Russian 36th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade were stationed, killing at least 60 people, according to the BBC.

A viral clip The post is intended to show the latest effects of the weapon system and was published on the Telegram channel of the Eastern European news channel Nexta.

The short video posted on Sunday was filmed from the window of what is believed to be a residential building, reportedly located in the town of Pervomaisk in the occupied Luhansk region.

An explosion and a loud bang are heard, and the person filming the scene in daylight can be heard screaming in horror as black smoke billows into the air and shards of glass are seen in the room.

Amidst loud curses, a voice can be heard saying: “Everything is flying out, the windows, everything.”

Nexta said the attack was directed against a concentration of Russian troops and that the reaction of the author of the video vividly describes the full force of the attack.

Meanwhile, in the Donetsk city of Yasynuvata, a child born in 2020 and a teenager were moderately injured after a HIMARS attack, according to Denis Pushilin, the head of the occupied region appointed by Moscow.

Pushilin said in a Telegram post on Monday that there had been another HIMARS attack in the Petrovsky district of the region.

He said four employees of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry were injured, a fire broke out and a residential building was damaged. In his post, he added that the Ukrainian armed forces carried out attacks with 155 mm caliber artillery.

Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries for comment on the claims, which have not been independently verified.

According to the X-account Ukraine Battle Map, a video last month allegedly showed for the first time Ukrainian forces using HIMARS M30 cluster munitions rockets (GMLRS) against Russian soldiers.

The attack reportedly occurred about 21 kilometers near Burchak in the Zaporizhia region on the southern front line and targeted a group of “at least seven Russian soldiers and possibly a vehicle,” the report said.