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Ukraine destroyed columns of Russian soldiers waiting with HIMARS, a Ukrainian commander said.
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He said Ukraine attacked them as soon as it got permission to use allied weapons across the border.
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Military experts say Ukraine’s ability to use Western-supplied weapons in Russia is helping its response.
Ukraine managed to destroy columns of Russian soldiers after obtaining permission from its allies to use their weapons to attack military targets on the border with Russia, a Ukrainian commander said.
The artillery commander, with the call sign Hefastus, told the Associated Press that Ukrainian HIMARS began firing in the northern Kharkiv region as soon as Ukraine received permission.
“The HIMARS were not silent all day,” he said, referring to the High mobility artillery rocket system.
Ukraine got permission from its allies last month to attack military targets in Russia with weapons supplied by them, reversing a long-standing restriction.
“From the first days, Ukrainian forces managed to destroy entire columns of troops along the border, waiting for the order to enter Ukraine,” Hefastus said, according to the AP.
He said Ukraine could not have achieved this without its new permits, as normal ammunition could not reach that far.
Hefastus added that Ukraine was now capable of destroying Russian command centers.
His claims have not been independently verified.
Even so, Ukraine appears to have used HIMARS to hit targets in Russia since restrictions were lifted.
Russia has also been stationing troops near the border with Ukraine, ready to be called into combat.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Havryliuk told the AP that at least 90,000 Russian troops on Russian territory were preparing for a new attack when restrictions were lifted.
It is unclear whether any of these troops would have been hit by the HIMARS strikes.
In the past, analysts have described Ukraine as being forced to fight with one hand behind their backwith Russia using its own territory to resupply its forces and launch drone, missile and aircraft attacks.
This changed in May, when many of Ukraine’s allies said they could now use weapons they had supplied to pursue military targets on Russian soil.
The US, which announced its policy change on May 30, did not go as far as some, but still said Ukraine could use the weapons it supplied to attack regions beyond the Kharkiv border.
This allowed Ukraine to react more forcefully against a new Russian offensive that began in Kharkiv on May 10th.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s national guard published images From what was said were two Russian Pantsir-S air defense systems destroyed, south of the city of Belgorod. Russian Media outlets also reported the attack, which was well within range of HIMARS.
Although it is unclear exactly what weapons were used, Defense Express reported that the location of the Pantsirs had been compromised by OSINT investigators about six months ago, and went on to suggest that the attack had been enabled by the change in US posture.
Experts say this new reality has had a major impact on Kharkiv, especially given that the Russian border is so close to the fighting. In the past, Russia has been able to replenish its forces with troops, ammunition and equipment and Ukraine has been able to do little to interfere.
George Barros, a Russian military expert at the US Institute for the Study of War, told BI that in the first few days there was a “positive difference”.
“They really helped mitigate the Russian offensive in the heartland,” he said, with Ukraine able to launch “small tactical counterattacks.”
Two Ukrainian officials said The Washington Post that some Russian attacks had been scaled back, but added that the air bases from which they launched the attacks were outside the range that US permission allowed Ukraine to reach.
The AP reported that Ukraine’s new strike capabilities have “greatly slowed Russia’s momentum,” with local reports saying that Ukrainian troops have managed to advance and regain some territory — although the country’s military is still under great pressure.
Read the original article at Business Insider
