An apparent Ukrainian HIMARS strike has reportedly killed hundreds of Russian soldiers as they gathered at a training camp on Dzharylhach Island in the occupied Kherson region.
Footage filmed by a drone shows a long, sandy spit of land before zooming in on a number of troop formations gathered by the shore of the Black Sea.
Toward the end of the video, a large explosion is seen where the soldiers had been gathering. According to Ukrainian sources, the strike was carried out using information provided by local “underground” sources in the occupied territory.
HIMARS strikes on Russian positions on the Dzharylhach island, Kherson region. ~ 60km from the front line. https://t.co/U13jzRXTvC pic.twitter.com/Am8qL1kBx7
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 1, 2023
Ukraine’s National Resistance Center said in a post on Facebook: “Thanks to the information provided by the underground in the temporarily occupied territory, dozens of invaders and enemy equipment were destroyed.”
Ukrainian media reports put the death toll at around 200 though this has not been confirmed.
Russian sources also reported the strike, with one milblogger pointing out the location of the troops is 60 km from the nearest Ukrainian forces, saying the attack was likely carried out using HIMARS, the Ukrainian version of which have a range of around 80 km.
PHOTO: National Resistance Center
In a daily assessment last month, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that Russia had established camps on Dzharylhach Island where troops from degraded units were sent to recover and train.
Ukraine has scored some big hits on large troop concetrations using HIMARS in recent months – in June, Russian milbloggers said their army is “at war with our own stupidity and sloppiness,” after reports emerged that as many as 100 of Moscow’s troops were killed when a Ukrainian strike struck a gathering of soldiers waiting for their commander to give a speech.
ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November, 10, 2024
The massacre occurred near Kreminna in Luhansk Oblast when members of the 20th Combined Arms Army gathered in a large group not far from the front lines and in range of Kyiv’s HIMARS rockets for two hours.
Kyiv did not officially confirm it was behind the strike but a Ukrainian official speaking on condition of anonymity, told Kyiv Post: “It’s a really funny situation there. They stood in the open air for two hours listening to the speech.
“That is enough time to fix them, transport the HIMARS, enter the coordinates and hit them.”
Elsewhere, Russian forces undertook one missile attack, 75 airstrikes, and 68 MLRS rocket assaults against Ukrainian settlements and positions, according to the morning update of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukraine undertook eight airstrikes.
Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line, near Bakhmut, on the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, in the Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia regional border area, and in the western Zaporizhzhia region on Aug. 1 and made advances in certain areas, according to ISW.
Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front on Aug. 1 and advanced near Kreminna and Bakhmut, according to ISW.
You can read more on the latest summer offensive developments here.
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