The NATO-supplied M270 system was tracked down across the border from Russia’s Kursk Region
One of the M270 MLRS systems provided to Kiev by its Western sponsors was destroyed in the Sumy region of Ukraine, according to a video published by the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday.
The system, a heavier tracked counterpart to HIMARS capable of firing both ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles and smaller high-precision projectiles, was identified by a surveillance drone near the village of Bezdrik, approximately 25 kilometers from the border with Russia’s Kursk Region.
The location was promptly struck by a ballistic missile launched from a Russian Iskander-M system. A large explosion and subsequent fire were observed in the area after the strike. According to estimates from the Russian military, the attack destroyed both the launcher and its crew.
HIMARS launchers, as well as their heavier tracked counterpart, the M270, have been supplied to Ukraine by Washington, London, and Berlin since the summer of 2022. Multiple systems have been destroyed during hostilities, with at least four eliminated since the start of the incursion into the Kursk Region earlier this month, according to Defense Ministry estimates.
These systems have been widely celebrated in Ukraine as a powerful weapon due to their ability to conduct high-precision long-range strikes, including with controversial anti-personnel shrapnel munitions. The launchers have been systematically used by Kiev’s forces against civilian targets in Donbas.
On Friday, the Ukrainian military used Western-made munitions against Russia’s Kursk Region for the first time, which Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described as “terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime against civilian targets.” The Ukrainian attack “completely destroyed” a bridge over the Seim River in the region’s Glushkovsky District, resulting in the deaths of volunteers who were assisting local residents with evacuation.
