While the Russians destroyed a HIMARs early in Ukraine’s Kursk operation, Ukraine’s loss of the weapon critical to its successful lightening advances into the region continue to mount throughout the war.
The first reported lost of a HIMARS during the Kursk operation occurred in the Sumy region on Thursday, August 15th, 2024. A Russian reconnaissance drone filmed its destruction.
In reporting on its destructions, Russians noted that the destroyed battery could have participated in the deadly assault on a column of more than 14 Russian transport vehicles in Rylsk, where the 116th Khorne Group annihilated the column around August 9th, 2024. Pictures of the deadly attack emerged slowly. Details came much later. Russia largely avenged the attack in strikes in Martynovka, just outside of Sudzha.
The announcement that Russia’s destruction of the HIMARs may have been involved in the August 9th, 2024 attack displays the extent of Russia’s pursuit of the Ukrainian weapons responsible for the attack.
The attack on the first HIMARS came after the American journal, New Lines, published an article, detailing the MLRS role in the Kursk operation, just three days after it began on August 6th, 2024.
The Russians wrote: “Накануне американский журнал New Lines написал, что ВСУ могли применить РСЗО HIMARS при нападении на Курскую область. Отмечается, что это оружие могло использоваться 9 августа в районе города Рыльска.”
The article in question is entitled, “How Ukraine Caught Putin’s Forces Off Guard in Kursk — And Why.” The authors wrote: “Video footage shows what looks to be a HIMARS or M270 strike on a Russian column in the village of Rylsk on Aug. 9. Multiple precision artillery rockets then slammed into the vehicles, leaving nearly a dozen smoldering husks and scores of Russian soldiers lying dead on the asphalt.”
The Russians, however, continue to attack HIMARs, as well as anti-air defense batteries. Russia’s TASS news agency, a government sponsored news channel, almost as old as the USSR’s Pravda, published an article entitled, “ВС РФ уничтожили две установки РСЗО HIMARS в Мирополье.”
Located in the Sumy region, Myropillia is in close proximity to the site of the first destroyed HIMARS during the Kursk opeartion. The article explains that a total of six vehicles, two rocket launchers, two transporters, two additional reloads were all blown up. The detonation of secondary explosions together from the two additional reloads is visible from the footage.
Together with other western weapons like the American HIMARS, Russia has blown up NATO armor like one of the 12 British Challenger IIs. One of the most noticeable writers on the Ukraine war, David Axe, from Forbes, for instance published an article detailing, inter alia, a finding the author made about Challenger II tanks two days ago on August 14th, 2024.
The author wrote: “Russian bloggers from the channel Северный Ветер published photos of the tank’s destruction in Kursk but did not identify the tank. [1] A blogger, who posted images of the tank’s fume extractor together with the TOGS II thermal housing on the turret’s roof, identified the tank.[2] The destruction of Ukrainian tanks like the Challenger II identified by military bloggers indicate that Ukraine’s utilization of its existing stocks of armor have contributed to the full mechanization of its lightening advance into Kursk, underscoring the importance of armor in the 21st century.”
Apart from his reporting on the Challenger II, he wrote: ” Russian rockets have destroyed a rare Polish-made S-125 air-defense battery protecting Ukrainian forces from Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast, just across the border from Kursk.”
In addition to the destruction of the Polish air defense battery, one of the most informed Russian Telegram channels, Изнанка, published a footage depicting the destruction of an American made Patriot anti-air defense system. Alongside the destroyed Patriot, one of Germany’s IRIS-T anti air defense system is blown up too.
While these last two may be decoys (due to the small secondary explosions), the Russians are nonetheless blowing up American, British, Polish and German military equipment, armor, and weapons throughout the area designated as the Special Military Operation amidst an intensified fight for the Kursk region. According to a pro-Russian military blogger, “В ходе отражения вторжения ВСУ в Курскую область ВС РФ уничтожили и захватили не менее 50 единиц бронетехники ВСУ.” [3]
[1] – [warriorofnorth:2026]
[2] – [@ Trotes936897:status/1823725951005680007]
[3] – [lostarmour:status/1824510031309705683]