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By Isabel van Brugen
News Reporter
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Ukrainian forces appeared to strike a Russian training site in the southern Zaporizhzhia region using U.S.-made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) missiles, Telegram channels reported on Friday.
Multiple Ukrainian Telegram channels, including Public Reserve Stugna, which has just under 85,000 subscribers, and Andriy Tsaplienko, a Ukrainian journalist, shared video footage that purportedly shows the moment the training ground was struck, causing multiple clouds of smoke to rise into the air.
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"Reportedly, this is a strike on a Russian training site in Zaporizhzhia region with GMLRS missiles and ATACMS cluster missiles," said Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, on X (formerly Twitter), on Friday.
Newsweek couldn't independently verify when or where the footage was filmed, and has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.
The Context
Earlier this year, the U.S. recently sent Ukraine long-range ATACMS capable of hitting targets as far away as 300 kilometers (186 miles). Since first debuting the weapons in October 2023, Ukrainian forces have used ATACMS on occasion to target Russian training grounds on its occupied territories.
What We Know
It remains unclear whether Russia suffered casualties in the reported attack. Russian officials have yet to comment on the incident.
In May, aerial drone footage shared by military analysts appeared to show dozens of Russian soldiers being targeted in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region with long-range ATACMS.
OSINT accounts estimated high casualty rates in that attack.
"Ukrainian ATACMS strike, with 4 ATACMS, including one dud, hitting a Russian training area in Mozhnyakivka, Luhansk Oblast. Based on the footage the losses will be significant. 80 km [50 miles] behind the front line," a volunteer with GeoConfirmed, an OSINT account that geolocates visual content from the Russia-Ukraine war, said on X, sharing stills showing the impact of the first strike.
The footage was also shared by Russian military analyst Ian Matveev, who estimated potential casualties to be in the dozens.
"Russian officers again took the soldiers out for training, to stand in a crowd next to the trucks. But they forgot that in addition to the cluster HIMARS, the Ukrainian Armed Forces now also have cluster ATACMS, which fly even further," wrote Matveev. "The result was a strike by three missiles, the number of deaths is unknown, but most likely the total losses are measured in dozens."
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The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, assessed in April that long-range ATACMS could "pose a significant threat to Russian ammunition depots in rear areas and may force the Russian command to choose between fortifying existing depots and further dispersing depots throughout occupied Ukraine."
The weapons will allow Ukrainian forces to "threaten a wider set of Russian targets in deep rear areas, and Ukrainian forces can use the ATACMS to cause more substantial damage to Russian logistics facilities and critical bridges along key Russian [ground lines of communications]," the think tank said.
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