New footage appears to show a Ukrainian strike on an advanced Russian electronic warfare (EW) system in the south of the war-torn country, as both sides push on with hunting key drone and counter-drone assets along the frontlines.
Ukraine apparently targeted a Russian Leer-3 EW system in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, which is partly controlled by Moscow's forces. The video, which looks to have been posted by a Ukrainian serviceman and then shared on social media, is attributed to airborne drone specialists with Ukraine's 129th Territorial Defense Brigade.
Drone warfare, and the technology to counter the uncrewed vehicles, has been a fast-developing and crucial race between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the more than 25 months of war. Both sides have attempted to disable the other's EW systems that can interfere with the targeting of drones.
Reconnaissance drones located the Russian EW system, guiding an artillery strike carried out by Ukrainian-operated HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Ukrainian military-focused outlet, Militarnyi, reported on Monday.
⚡️Destruction of a 🇷🇺Russian electronic warfare system, presumably RB-341V "Leer-3" in the Zaporozhye region. pic.twitter.com/bs1YM1n0iO
— 🇺🇦Ukrainian Front (@front_ukrainian) April 8, 2024
Newsweek could not independently verify the footage, nor the reports of a Ukrainian HIMARS strike in Zaporizhzhia. The Ukrainian military has been approached for comment via email.
The Leer-3 is a drone-based EW system that uses Russia's Orlan-10 uncrewed airborne vehicles to "disable cellular networks, and allow the Russian military to send fake messages to subscribers," according to a U.S. military website. The system can block adversary mobile phones, while still allowing its own phones to function.
The Leer-3 uses a six-wheel truck as a command and control post, coordinating three of the Orlan-10 drones fitted with jammers. Moscow has used the Leer-3 against Ukrainian troops, Russia's Defense Ministry has confirmed.
Ukraine has been using HIMARS since the summer of 2022, and the U.S. has sent 39 HIMARS to the country since February 2022, according to Pentagon documents.
The Ukrainian military has often published footage it says shows HIMARS carrying out successful strikes on key Russian assets. Last month, Ukraine's special forces said its fighters had destroyed a Russian Palantin EW system in the Zaporizhzhia region using an artillery system after Ukrainian reconnaissance drones located it. Militarnyi reported at the time that Ukrainian forces used a HIMARS in the strike.
Fighting in Zaporizhzhia has rumbled on despite a focus further north along the eastern frontlines in Donetsk and Russian attacks up to the Kharkiv city of Kupiansk.
Fighting continued in the west of the region on Monday, but there were no confirmed advances on either side, according to the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Clashes were reported near the Zaporizhzhia village of Robotyne, the think tank said in its latest update.
Ukraine reclaimed Robotyne from Russian control in its summer 2023 counteroffensive, but Russian forces have borne down on the village ever since.
Limited fighting was reported around the Donetsk village of Staromayorske, next to the border with Zaporizhzhia, the ISW noted.
On Tuesday, Ukraine's military said Russia had launched two attacks around Staromayorske in the previous 24 hours.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
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