Social Media Showed Russian Fire Trucks Destroyed in Excalibur Strike – New video footage posted on social media by Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) showed the destruction of at least a pair of Russian fuel trucks at a logistical point in Kulykivka, in the Luhansk Oblast.
The Russian vehicles had reportedly come under fire from Ukrainian M777 155mm howitzers, which employed the high-precision M982 Excalibur smart ordnance.
The more than two-minute-long video was first posted on Saturday.
Recorded by multiple unmanned aerial systems (UAS), which also likely provided target coordinates to the artillery personnel, the edited clip provided a view of the facility as it was engulfed in flames. Massive plumes of black smoke were seen rising to the sky as the fire burned out of control.
Clearly, more than just a couple of fire trucks were destroyed in the fighting.
The Luhansk Oblast in Eastern Ukraine has been the scene of intense fighting as Russian forces have sought to make advances, even as the UK’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has suggested that the Kremlin largely has remained on the defensive.
“In places, Russia has made gains of up to several kilometers,” the MoD announced last week, adding, “Russian commanders are likely trying to expand a security zone west from the defence lines they have prepared along higher ground.”
The MoD also reported that Ukrainian forces in the region have maintained an organized defense, but warned that their supply lines to the west have been increasingly threatened by the Russian envelopment operation. The recent attack against the facility in Kulykivka may not halt the Russian forces, but it would seem to be another setback as the Kremlin continues to lose massive numbers of troops in the conflict.
Unorthodox Combat
Even as the fighting near the city of Bakhmut in the neighboring Donetsk Oblast has been compared to the World War II Battle of Stalingrad for its house-to-house combat in the urban center, in the Luhansk Oblast, the ground war is increasingly similar to the unorthodox conflict seen in Yugoslavia during the Second World War where partisans and guerillas were engaged in large numbers.
Russia’s military has reportedly been breaking into civilian homes in the occupied Luhansk Oblast to seek out resistance fighters, as well as partisans and saboteurs. At the same time, the Kremlin has attempted to recruit local troops to support its own war aims – but Russian authorities have threatened that conscripts won’t be paid if they don’t have a Russian passport!
The recent artillery on the fuel trucks at the logistical facility is also the most recent attack on such support positions.
It was less than a month ago that a Russian ammunition warehouse in the occupied city of Kadiivka came under a drone strike, while another assault hit a local railcar repair plant that was being used by Russian troops as a military base.
#Ukraine: At least two Russian fuel trucks at a logistical point were destroyed by high-precision M982 Excalibur artillery strikes of the Ukrainian army in Kulykivka, #Luhansk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/q6WOUnNF9l
— ???????? Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 25, 2023
Drones and smart ordnance are being used to conduct partisan-style operations, and a result is a new form of asymmetric warfare that is giving Kyiv an edge in the conflict.
Author Experience and Expertise:
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
