A video has emerged of a rogue Russian air defense missile from a volley launched in the Luhansk region flipping 180 degrees in mid-flight and crashing into almost exactly where it was launched.
The footage was reportedly shot early this morning near the town of Alchevsk, roughly 55 miles south of Severodonetsk, where the most intense combat has been taking place.
According to reports, the air defense missile system – probably an S300 – was operated by pro-Russian rebels from the breakaway Luhansk People’s Republic in Ukraine.
The origin of the breakdown is unknown, while some speculate that it was caused by hacking or jamming by a loitering Ukrainian drone, which is regarded implausible.
The missile is shown in the video exploding violently upon contact and spraying the vicinity with a brilliant cascade of sparks. This is believed to be the result of the missile’s fuel exploding because it was not consumed during flight.
Watch Video Here: https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/preview/mol/2022/06/24/6866047653695212617/636x382_MP4_6866047653695212617.mp4
A fire started from the location not far from residential buildings, according to reports in the local media. There were no reports of Russian or separatist forces being hurt in the accident.
In 2018, a malfunctioning US-made Patriot air defense missile that was being used to intercept ballistic missiles launched by Yemen’s Houthi group struck a residential neighborhood in northeastern Riyadh.
Russia’s much-heralded anti-aircraft missile systems have had difficulty neutralizing Ukraine’s use of loitering drones to attack targets throughout the three-month conflict, most notably the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone.
Russia, on the other hand, has had far greater success with concentrated artillery barrages, using them to gradually force Ukrainian defenses in Severodonetsk back at the expense of basically razing the city to the ground.
Ukraine has demanded long-range, high-precision artillery missile systems from the West in response, as their own artillery runs out of ammunition and Russia continues to strike their munitions factories and warehouses.
The United States has provided the most military equipment and other help, announcing an additional $450 million in new armaments, including four HIMARS rocket systems.
The weapons can launch numerous precise missiles at a range of 50 miles at the same time, which is a capability that Ukraine desperately needs in the raging battlefields near Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the east.
Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian Minister of Defence, tweeted yesterday: ‘HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine. Thank you to my American colleague and friend, US Defence Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them.’
The Ukranian military is being forced to retreat from Severodonetsk, according to a senior Ukrainian official, due to a brutal Russian offensive that is reducing the battleground city to rubble with massed heavy artillery shelling that the Ukrainians cannot match.
‘Ukraine has one artillery piece to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces,’ Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence said two weeks ago, ‘and we are losing in terms of artillery’.
‘Everything now depends on what [the west] gives us,’ said Skibitsky. ‘Ukraine has one artillery piece to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces. Our western partners have given us about 10% of what they have.’
Capturing Severodonetsk in the Donbas region has become a crucial aim for the Russians as they focus their onslaught on eastern Ukraine after being driven out of Kyiv after their February invasion.
The strategically significant industrial city has been the scene of weeks of street warfare as outgunned Ukrainians have mounted a valiant defense.
However, Sergiy Gaiday, governor of Lugansk, which contains the city, stated that the Ukrainian troops would have to withdraw.
‘They have received an order to do so,’ he said on Telegram.
‘Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn’t make sense.’
The city has been ‘nearly turned to rubble’ by continual bombardment, he added.
‘All critical infrastructure has been destroyed. Ninety percent of the city is damaged, 80 percent (of) houses will have to be demolished,’ he said.
The Ukrainians now only control the city’s industrial sections after being forced out of much of the city.
The Russians would have control of Lugansk and be able to advance further into the larger Donbas if they were able to take Severodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk, which is located across the Donets River.
Lysychansk, which has been under intensive Russian bombardment, is now being approached, according to Gaiday.
For those who remained in the city, the situation was getting worse.
According to Liliya Nesterenko, she and her mother were cooking over a campfire because their home was without gas, water, or power. She had emerged from her bicycle as she rode down the street to feed a friend’s pets.
But the 39-year-old was upbeat about the city’s defences: ‘I believe in our Ukrainian army, they should (be able to) cope.
‘They’ve prepared already.’
Earlier, a pro-Russian separatist official in Ukraine told AFP that the Ukrainian military’s efforts to protect Lysychansk and Severodonetsk were “pointless and futile.”