Russia boasted on Thursday that it could “counteract” the US-supplied M142 highly mobile artillery missile systems – known as HIMARS – shortly after Washington said it would add four more to Ukraine’s arsenal amid the ongoing war.
“One should not be afraid [of HIMARS], one must fight it. This is not a panacea, this is one of the weapons that the enemy is using now,” Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the Russian State Duma’s defense committee, told TASS on Thursday. “At the same time, I want to emphasize that foreign specialists, that is mercenaries directing it to a target. I don’t rule out the US military working there.”
“The system is serious, but there is a countermeasure – our air defense facilities,” the lawmaker added, claiming that on Wednesday, Russian air defenses shot down 12 missiles over the Antonovka road bridge, also known as the Antonovsky bridge, in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region. which is currently occupied by Russian forces.
Meanwhile, The Kyiv Post reported on Wednesday that Ukraine’s armed forces partially destroyed the vital bridge by shelling, noting that it links Kherson to the occupied regions of the Crimean peninsula.
Russia boasted on Thursday that it could “counter” HIMARS. Above, a US-made HIMARS (High Mobility Advanced Rocket System) is shown on static display during a live-fire exercise on April 14, 2016 in Crow Valley, Tarlac province, Philippines. Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Moscow-backed interim administration in the region, said the Ukrainian military struck the nearly mile-long bridge using HIMARS.
“Ukraine is shelling a bridge over the Dnieper in the Kherson region for the second day in a row from HIMARS rocket launchers. 12 missiles were fired, 11 of which hit the bridge. There were no casualties or injuries,” Stremousov said.
On Wednesday, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, also shared a video on his Telegram channel that he said showed Russian air defenses “unsuccessfully trying to shoot down HIMARS missiles flying towards” an ammunition depot in Skadovsk, in southern Ukrainian Kherson region.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Wednesday that Washington would provide Ukraine with four more HIMARS.
Austin noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s troops have “effectively” used the HIMARS they already have and that the long-range weapons “have made such a difference on the battlefield.”
The new deliveries will bring Ukraine’s total number of HIMARS to 16. On July 9, Ukrainian presidential adviser and peace negotiator Mykhailo Podoliak named HIMARS as one of three weapons Ukraine needs to turn the tide of the war.
Luhansk Governor Sergey Haidai told Newsweek last week that Russians were “in panic mode” over the HIMARS strikes.
“As the whole world has seen over the past week or so, we have been able to inflict massive damage on their missile defense systems and ammunition storage facilities deep behind enemy lines,” Haiday said.
This, he said, “is largely due to the variety of weapons that we have recently received from the West. And when we have enough of such weapons, we will be able to carry out additional counterattacks.”
Newsweek has reached out to Russian and Ukrainian authorities for comment.
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