These are the Ukrainian “Hurricane” multiple launch rocket systems in action.
Ukrainian soldiers removed some branches camouflaging the multiple launch rocket vehicle before it emerges from some undergrowth onto a dirt track, as this footage shows.
They can be seen taking up position, with soldiers then readying its weaponry. A first rocket is then being fired in slow motion before a salvo of rockets take to the skies. The vehicle can then be seen driving away, presumably to be redeployed elsewhere, before the footage ends.
It is unclear where exactly in Ukraine the images were filmed, but the footage was obtained from the Strategic Communications Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Thursday, June 23, along with a short statement saying that the footage shows a “Ukrainian-made MLRS ‘Hurricane’ on a Tatra chassis.”
The BM-27 Uragan, which means ‘Hurricane’ in English, was first designed in the 1970s in the Soviet Union. It is now used by a host of primarily former USSR states, including Ukraine.
The Strategic Communications Department added: “A formidable weapon in defense of our country! Believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine!”
We contacted Russian and Ukrainian officials for comment but had not received a reply at the time of writing.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what the Kremlin is still calling a “special military operation.” June 24 marks the 121st day of the invasion.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between February 24 and June 23, Russia had lost about 34,430 personnel, 1,504 tanks, 3,632 armored combat vehicles, 756 artillery units, 240 multiple launch rocket systems, 99 air defense systems, 216 warplanes, 183 helicopters, 620 drones, 137 cruise missiles, 14 warships, 2,548 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 60 units of special equipment.
The Ukrainian military has said that it has launched airstrikes on Zmiinyi Island, which is also known as Snake Island, causing “significant losses” to Russia’s forces there in an operation that it says is ongoing.
This week, Russia conducted an anti-ship missile exercise in the Baltic Sea amid escalating tensions with NATO member Lithuania after the latter country blocked the transit of some goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Russian Foreign Ministry press secretary Maria Zakharova has said that Moscow’s response to Lithuania banning the transit of goods sanctioned by the EU, to Kaliningrad will not only be diplomatic but also practical.
But Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has accused Russia of lying over the blockade, saying that people can still travel between Russia and Kaliningrad and that the blockade only affects one percent of goods.
Ukrainian forces have said that they have been successfully thwarting fresh Russian attempts to advance in the Kharkiv region of north-eastern Ukraine, but Russian forces have captured several settlements near Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, with 568 civilians believed to still be sheltering in Sievierodonetsk’s Azot chemical plant.
The city of Lysychansk, in the Luhansk Oblast of eastern Ukraine, is now said to be under siege from Russian and pro-Russian forces.
Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, has urged locals in the Kherson region to evacuate, to help Ukrainian forces “de-occupy” the area.
British intelligence has claimed that the pro-Russia, so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) may have lost about 55 percent of its original forces.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that this is a “historic week,” just a day before the EU formally accepted his country’s status as EU candidate on Thursday, June 23.
This came after the European Parliament adopted a resolution on June 8 recommending that the European Union grant Ukraine the status of candidate country for EU membership. Some 438 Members of the European Parliament voted in favor of the resolution, with 65 voting against and 94 abstaining.
President Zelenskyy, speaking to the African Union on Monday, June 20, also accused Russia of holding Africa “hostage” over grain and fertilizer shortages.
The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, has warned that Russia may stop supplying gas to Europe this winter. Several European countries have already received less Russian gas than expected in the last few weeks, with European imports of natural gas from Russia dropping from approximately 40 percent before the war began to 20 percent.
