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Ukraine has destroyed a Russian self-propelled artillery system, according to footage published online by Kyiv's military.
The clip posted by Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces on Thursday shows Ukrainian forces hitting a Russian 2S9 Nona-S mortar carrier in an unspecified location in the war-torn country. In the video, which appears to have been recorded by a Ukrainian drone, a self-propelled artillery system can be seen moving through fields before it is struck and explodes.
Newsweek could not independently verify this footage and when it was filmed, and reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry via email for comment. The footage previously appeared on the social media pages of Ukraine's naval forces earlier this month.
Artillery systems have played a key role in operations in Ukraine for both Kyiv and Moscow. "The war in Ukraine has become an artillery war," the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said in January 2023.
On Thursday, the Norwegian Defense Ministry said Norway and Denmark would jointly supply an additional 9,000 rounds of artillery to Ukraine.
"Ukraine has an urgent need for artillery ammunition," Norwegian Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram said in a statement.
A total of 10 artillery systems operated by Russia were taken out of action over the previous day, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Thursday. According to Kyiv's count, Russia has lost a total of 3,793 artillery systems since February 2022, and Russia's Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Ukraine has lost 5,121 field artillery pieces and mortars in the same time period. Neither figure can be independently verified.
According to the Dutch open source tracker, Oryx, Russia has lost 31 of its 120mm 2S9 Nona systems and four 120mm 2S23 Nona-SVKs since the start of the war in February 2022. The 2S9 Nona has been in service since the 1980s, and Ukrainian media has also reported its use by Kyiv against Moscow's troops. Ukraine has lost three of the 120mm 2S9 Nona mortar systems since last February, per the Oryx tally.
This comes as Ukrainian fighters push on with the first stages of Kyiv's long-expected counteroffensive.
"Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations in at least three directions and made gains on June 14," the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said on Wednesday.
Ukraine had also made gains for several days prior to this assessment. There were advancements around the fiercely contested Donetsk city of Bakhmut and at points in the annexed southern region of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Wednesday.
But analysts say it is still too early to tell how the counteroffensive will play out and how much success Ukraine's forces will have in the coming weeks and months.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more