These images show Ukrainian forces wiping out a Russian military convoy using an American-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher system and an Estonian-made drone.
The footage shows how the Russian military convoy is tracked by the Estonian-made Magyla-3 UAV, which was donated to Ukraine after a fundraising campaign in Lithuania, as it leaves an urban area.
The drone continues to film the convoy as it arrives in a forested area.
The images then show the area being targeted by the American-made HIMARS system, with multiple explosions laying waste to the military vehicles, which can only just be seen hidden beneath the canopy.
One of the Russian military vehicles appears to be sending its ordnance flying in different directions as it burns.
The images were obtained from the Office of Strategic Communications (StratCom) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Thursday, 20th October, along with a statement saying that the attack on the Russian convoy was assisted by the “Magyla-3 UAV”.
Ukrainian and Lithuanian media said the attack was carried out using HIMARS and explained that the Magyla-3 is one of four drones that were donated to Ukraine thanks to a fundraising campaign in Lithuania.
The four Estonian-made UAVs were reportedly named ‘Magyla-1’, ‘Magyla-2’, ‘Magyla-3’ and ‘Magyla-4’ in honour of the Lithuanian goddess of death. They are reportedly four Estonian EOS C VTOL reconnaissance UAVs built by Estonian company Threod Systems.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is still calling a “special military operation”. Today marks the 239th day of the war.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between 24th February and 20th October, Russia had lost about 66,650 personnel, 2,567 tanks, 5,255 armoured combat vehicles, 1,646 artillery units, 372 multiple launch rocket systems, 189 air defence systems, 269 warplanes, 243 helicopters, 1,311 drones, 329 cruise missiles, 16 warships, 4,005 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 147 units of special equipment.
Russia has claimed that its casualties have been much lower but provides infrequent updates on its latest figures.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared martial law in the four provinces of Ukraine he claims to have annexed.
The new law gives significant emergency powers to the Moscow-installed heads of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Putin has also tightened security across Russia, introducing three different levels of security. The highest level of security will affect regions close to the border with Ukraine and is geared towards increasing security and public order.
The Moscow-installed head of the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Saldo, has spoken of plans to relocate 60,000 people across the Dnieper River and into Russia over the next week, ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake the city.
Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff, has called the Russian announcements “a propaganda show”, with officials in Kyiv saying that the population transfers amount to “deportations”.
Ukrainian officials have also said that civilians should not comply with the Russian request to evacuate.
Russia has continued to launch new missile strikes targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Three additional energy facilities were destroyed on Wednesday, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky also said that Ukrainian officials are working to create mobile power points, adding that Russian airstrikes have so far destroyed 30 per cent of Ukraine’s power stations since 10th October, causing huge blackouts across the country.
Ukraine said that it was going to restrict electricity supplies across the country as of 7am today, Thursday.
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, has said that the Russian strikes are “acts of pure terror” and that they amount to war crimes.
Her comments came after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were reportedly left without electricity or water on Wednesday as a result of the Russian strikes.
The European Union is reportedly planning to impose sanctions on three senior Iranian military commanders and the company that builds the drones that are believed to have been used by Russia to launch numerous attacks on Ukraine in the past week.
The Defence Secretary of the United Kingdom, Ben Wallace, has said, after talks in Washington with his opposite number, that Putin will face “severe consequences” if he uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
