A column of Russian military equipment was destroyed in the Kursk region, a video circulating via Russian pro-war Telegram channels appears to show, with some suggesting that Ukrainian forces used U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in the attack.
The footage was shared on social media on the third day of Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Western Kursk region. Kyiv's forces launched its cross-border armored assault on Tuesday, swiftly seizing a large number of settlements and capturing scores of Russian personnel.
Ukraine has so far gained control of at least 166 square miles of Russian territory—equivalent to the size of New Orleans—investigative Russian outlet Agentstvo reported on Thursday. Newsweek could not independently verify this.
The Russian military column is reported to have been attacked in the village of Oktyabrskoye, located about 5 miles from Rylsk. Some reports have suggested that Ukraine intends to take control of Rylsk, located west of Kurchatov, where the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is located.
Several Russian Telegram channels said Ukraine's military used HIMARS in the attack. "A column of Russian equipment was destroyed by a HIMARS strike in the Kursk region,' the Truexa News channel said.
Videos showed the charred remains of what appears to be Russian vehicles on the side of a road.
Newsweek couldn't independently verify the use of HIMARS in Kursk, and has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.
The U.S.-supplied HIMARS have allowed Ukraine to destroy Russia's most-advanced anti-aircraft missile systems in the war.
On Thursday, the Biden administration said that Ukraine was allowed to use U.S.-supplied weapons as part of its incursion into Kursk.
The armored assault into Kursk is "consistent with our policy," U.S. Defense Department Deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.
"We have supported Ukraine from the very beginning to defend themselves against attacks that are coming across the border and for the need for crossfires," said Singh. "So they are taking actions to protect themselves from attacks that are coming from a region that are within the U.S. policy of where they can operate, you know, our weapons, our systems, our capabilities."
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Thursday that the Kremlin will "almost certainly endeavor to retake Russian territory in Kursk Oblast that Ukrainian forces have seized and stop Ukrainian activity further into Russia."
This is because "substantial Ukrainian advances within Russia would be a strategic blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's decades-long effort to cement a legacy of Russian stability, security, and geopolitical resurgence," the ISW said.
According to Agentstvo, in roughly 24 hours, Ukraine's forces overwhelmed two major lines of fortifications in the Kursk region that took Russia over two-and-a-half years and more than $170 million to build.
The defense lines were jointly built by Russia's Defense Ministry and Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) after Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
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