Russian Missile U-turns And Smashes Into Troops Who Fired It

Video has emerged of one rogue Russian air defence missile from a volley launched in the Luhansk region turning 180 degrees in mid-air to smash into almost the exact location from where it was launched. The video was reported to be filmed in the early hours this morning near the town of Alchevsk, about 55 miles south of Severodonetsk, where the fiercest fighting has been raging.

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Reports indicate that the air defence missile system - possibly an S300 - was operated by Ukrainian pro-Russian separatists from the breakaway Luhansk People's Republic. The cause of the malfunction is not clear, with some speculating that it may be due to hacking or jamming by a loitering Ukrainian drone, although this is considered unlikely. 

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The video shows the missile creating a large explosion on impact and showering the surrounding area in a bright cascade of sparks, thought to be caused by the missile's fuel exploding having not been spent on its flight. According to local media reports, a fire erupted from the site not far from residential buildings. There were no reports on casualties suffered by Russian and separatist forces in the mishap.

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Here is the video of the missile making the U-turn:

A similar incident occurred in Saudi Arabia in 2018, when a US-made Patriot air defence missile fired to intercept ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi militia malfunctioned, turning around and crashing into a residential area of northeastern Riyadh.

Ukraine has had substantial success throughout the three-month war employing loitering drones - notably the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone - to strike targets, something Russia's much-vaunted anti-aircraft missile systems have struggled to eliminate. But Russia has been having far greater success with its concentrated artillery barrages, utilising them to slowly push Ukrainian positions in Severodonetsk back.

EPA

The Ukranian military is being forced to retreat from Severodonetsk, according to a senior Ukrainian official, due to a brutal Russian offensive that is reducing the battleground city to rubble with massed heavy artillery shelling that the Ukrainians cannot match.

EPA

Capturing Severodonetsk, in the Donbas region, has become a key goal of the Russians as they focus their offensive on eastern Ukraine after being repelled from Kyiv following their February invasion. The strategically important industrial hub has been the scene of weeks of street battles as the outgunned Ukrainians put up a fierce defence. But the city has been 'reduced to rubble' by concentrated heavy artillery shelling by the Russian army.

AFP via Getty images

The US is cooperating with Ukrainian demands to provide accurate, long-range weapons systems such as the HIMAR to match and exceed Russia on the battlefield. The systems can simultaneously launch multiple precision missiles at an extended range of 50 miles, and provide a capability that Ukraine is sorely lacking in the raging battlefields around Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the east.

AP

The Ukrainians had already been pushed back from much of the city, leaving them in control of only industrial areas.

Capturing Severodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk, Severodonetsk's sister city across the Donets river, would give the Russians control of Lugansk, and allow them to push further into the wider Donbas.

AFP via Getty images

Governor of Lugansk Sergiy Gaiday said the Russians were now advancing on Lysychansk, which has been facing increasingly heavy Russian bombardment.

The situation for those that remain in the city is increasingly bleak.