This slick footage shows a Russian multiple rocket launcher daubed with a white ‘Z’ pummeling what appears to be a tract of woodland with missiles.
Zenger News obtained the video from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on July 22.
The Russian MoD said: “Western Military District’s TOS-1A ‘Solntepec’ heavy flamethrower system crews combat operation to destroy AFU ammunition depots and fortified strongholds.
“Shooting is carried out using the latest topo-geo-referencing software systems.”
The MoD did not specify where in Ukraine the strikes took place.
The TOS-1A is a Soviet 220 mm 24-barrel (Object 634B or TOS-1A) multiple rocket launcher that entered service in 1988.
Zenger News contacted the Russian MoD for further comment, as well as the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, but had not received a reply at the time of writing.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what the Kremlin is calling a “special military operation”. Friday marks the 149th day of the invasion.
In its latest report on July 21, the Russian MoD put Ukrainian losses at “260 airplanes and 144 helicopters, 1,577 unmanned aerial vehicles, 356 air defense missile systems, 4,135 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 762 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 3,174 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 4,413 units of special military equipment”.
MI6 head Richard Moore said on July 21 that the Russian military was likely to start an operational pause in Ukraine in the coming weeks, giving Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces an opportunity to strike back.
But U.K. intelligence also said Russian forces appeared to be closing in on the Vuhlehirska coal-fueled thermal power station in Svitlodarsk, Donetsk Oblast, in Moscow’s push to seize critical infrastructure and take more Ukrainian territory.
Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov reported on July 21 that Russia had shelled one of the most densely populated areas of Ukraine’s second city, with the provincial prosecutor’s office reporting three dead and 23 wounded in the strikes.
CIA director William Burns said on July 20 that Washington estimated around 15,000 Russian military fatalities in Ukraine thus far, in addition to some 45,000 wounded, with corresponding Ukrainian figures also significant.
Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres will sign a deal on July 22 to resume the export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, according to the office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Meanwhile, an EU proposal that member states cut gas use by 15 percent in preparation for potential supply cuts from Russia has met resistance from individual governments, casting doubt on whether the emergency plan will be approved.
