Russia Loses 44 Artillery Systems in a Day As Kyiv Blasts Prized Weapons

Ukraine has destroyed $25 million worth of Russian equipment across the southern front lines over the past week, Kyiv said on Wednesday, as Moscow's artillery losses mount in the war-torn country.

Ukrainian soldiers destroyed a BM-21 Grad, a BM-27 Uragan and a TOS multiple rocket launcher, as well as one of Russia's prized Zoopark counterbattery radar systems in the southern Zaporizhzhia region in the past week, Ukraine's special operations forces said in a statement.

Artillery has dominated the 20-month-long war in Ukraine. Firepower like multiple rocket launchers is key, and being able to take out the opposing military with artillery and rocket launchers is even more important than maneuvers, Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Hague Center for Security Studies, told Newsweek in September.

Ukraine said on Sunday that it had destroyed a Zoopark system, used to search out and target Kyiv's artillery systems.

"Our soldiers discovered and identified the enemy's heavy equipment, and adjusted artillery fire on it," Ukraine's special operations forces said on Wednesday. "The [total] estimated value of the burned equipment is about $25 million."

Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Tavria group of forces, said on Sunday that the destroyed Zoopark system alone was "valued at over 10 million dollars."

Newsweek has approached the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

In a clip shared by Kyiv's special operations forces, Ukrainian drones appear to have filmed the systems operating in the Russian-annexed region, before they were targeted. Russia does not entirely control the Zaporizhzhia region, despite having officially claimed control of the southern region in September 2022. Along with the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia has been a focus of Ukrainian counteroffensive efforts since early June.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, the General Staff of Ukraine's military said its forces had taken out 44 Russian artillery systems in the past day. Per Kyiv's count, Russia has now lost 7,125 artillery systems since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Russian troops shelled more than 100 settlements in eastern, southern and northern Ukraine with artillery fire in the previous 24 hours, the General Staff added.

Ukraine has lost 6,865 field artillery guns and mortars in the 20 months of war, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, adding that by its tally, Kyiv's soldiers had also lost 1,169 combat vehicles carrying multiple launch rocket systems.

Across the frontlines in Zaporizhzhia, Russia destroyed two Ukrainian-operated M777 artillery systems, two towed Msta-B and D-20 howitzers as well as a lightweight M119 howitzer in the previous 24 hours, Russia's Defense Ministry added.

Newsweek could not independently verify these numbers. The Ukrainian General Staff has been contacted for comment via email.