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| Russia Claims Destroyed 2 HIMARS US Shipments in Eastern Ukraine |
But that statement was later refuted by Kiev. Moscow said it had destroyed two launchers for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) supplied by the US and its allies to Kiev.
It also said Russian forces destroyed two ammunition depots storing rockets for HIMARS near the front line in a southern village of Kramatorsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region which became the main focus of Russian troops after the conquest of Luhansk on Sunday.
Quoted from Al Arabiya, Russia's Defense Ministry released video footage it said showed the attack. But the Ukrainian general staff rejected Russia's recognition. In a post on Twitter, it said the claim was "false" and used US-supplied HIMARS to inflict a "devastating blow" on Russian troops.
Ukraine only received four HIMARS systems in early July, the European Council on Foreign Relations said in a report.
The United States has pledged to deliver eight HIMARS by mid-July. Western arms supplies are crucial to Ukraine's efforts to push back the tens of thousands of Russian troops Moscow sent to its pro-Western neighbor on February 24 in what it called a "special military operation."