This footage shows how Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian Grad multiple rocket launcher.
The images show the Russian Grad after it was spotted by Ukrainian forces, who say they managed to lure it out into the open before destroying it. The footage reportedly shows the enemy vehicle being hit by Ukrainian ordnance.
The footage was obtained from the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Friday, 26th August, along with a statement saying: “The joint work of our departments brings good results. Our goal was to lure out and destroy the enemy GRAD that was spotted earlier in this area. According to our plan, he was supposed to come out of hiding and fire in response to our shelling of the enemy’s location. The result is in the video.”
The BM-21 Grad is a Russian multiple rocket launcher that was designed in the Soviet Union.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is still calling a “special military operation”. Today marks the 184th day of the war.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between 24th February and 26th August, Russia had lost about 46,250 personnel, 1,936 tanks, 4,251 armoured combat vehicles, 1,040 artillery units, 272 multiple launch rocket systems, 148 air defence systems, 234 warplanes, 202 helicopters, 834 drones, 196 cruise missiles, 15 warships, 3,162 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 99 units of special equipment.
Russia has claimed that its casualties have been much lower, but provides infrequent updates on its latest figures.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, was temporarily disconnected from Ukraine’s national grid for the first time in almost 40 years of operation, as a result of shelling that cut the last remaining power line to the facility, according to the country’s nuclear energy company, Energoatom.
Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine’s Energy Minister, said the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog could go to the plant in the “coming days”.
The White House has called on Russia to accept a demilitarised area around the plant after US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky talked on Wednesday, Ukraine’s 31st independence day.
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to increase the size of Russia’s armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million soldiers.
Latvia has taken down a Soviet-era obelisk in its capital, Riga, amid criticism from Russia and protest from the Baltic country’s ethnic Russian minority. The nearly 80-metre (262-foot) obelisk was at the heart of a monument to commemorate the Red Army’s victory over Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Latvia has issued a decree stating that all objects glorifying totalitarian regimes are to be destroyed by 15th November.
