According to a prominent Russian war blogger, Ukrainian HIMARS are now being used on the front lines to attack Russian positions in the south of the country.
HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) would be deployed “without hesitation for front-line deployments” in regions like eastern Donetsk and southern Zaporizhia, said Kremlin propagandist Semyon Pegov, who runs the WarGonzo Telegram account , on Thursday .
“They hit the forward fortifications head on,” he wrote, adding that Kiev’s military may attempt to “penetrate” Russian forces with the HIMARS.
“Keeping the HIMARS out of the trenches is much more difficult than tank attacks,” Pegov continued.
A HIMARS is deployed in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on May 18, 2023. HIMARS are “dedicated to front-line operations without hesitation,” according to a well-known Russian military blogger. Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Ukraine has been using HIMARS since the summer of 2022. The wheeled multi-missile launchers arrived in Ukraine in June 2022 and were hailed as “powerful tools” by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
Then, in late July 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “HIMARS and other precision weapons are turning the tide of the war in our favor.”
The US has provided Ukraine with 38 HIMARS in addition to ammunition for artillery systems as part of its military aid packages.
The question remains whether Ukraine has already launched its long-awaited counter-offensive against Russian forces.
On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine launched a “large-scale offensive” on Sunday, focused on “five front sectors.”
“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defenses in the most vulnerable sector of the front,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov. The Russian Ministry of Defense added that this attempt had failed.
However, the head of the Wagner mercenary group fighting in Ukraine, Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, said earlier this week that Ukrainian forces had “already breached the defense line” in several areas.
Vladimir Rogov, the leader of the pro-Moscow We Are With Russia movement, told state media on Thursday that Kyiv had been conducting counter-offensives in the southern Zaporizhia region for up to four days.
Kiev has remained largely taciturn about its operations, and on Wednesday the head of Ukraine’s Defense and Security Council denied the counteroffensive had begun.
“None of this is true,” Oleksiy Danilov told Portal. “When all of this begins will be decided by our military.”
“If we start the counter-offensive, everyone will know about it and see it,” added Danilov.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces had advanced between 200 and 1,100 meters in several areas near the contested Donetsk city of Bakhmut the previous day.
Newsweek has emailed the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.