HIMARS Blamed for Bloody Strike on Russian Unit Standing in Field to Wait for General

A Ukrainian long-range missile strike shattered a Russian infantry battalion drawn up in parade formation, killing dozens of soldiers as they waited for a top Kremlin-appointed general and other army brass to inspect their ranks, Wednesday reports from both sides of the lines said.

Russian milbloggers blamed US-made M2 precision-guided missiles loaded with cluster munitions, and local commanders either ignorant or uncaring about the long-range of the American weapon system, for the devastating attack hitting a training area east of the Kremlin-occupied Ukrainian city of Volnovakha.

According to those accounts, two or three GPS-guided rocket-propelled artillery missiles fired by a Ukrainian HIMARS launcher slammed into a field near the Ukrainian town of Trudivske reportedly shortly after 9 a.m. on Tuesday, hitting dozens of men forming up there to receive a ceremonial inspection by Maj. Gen. Oleg Moiseev, area commander and top officer in Russia’s 29th Army.

Photos and video appeared to back up the fact of the artillery attack and heavy Russian casualties, but by midday Wednesday neither side had commented on the strike officially.

Video and photographs recorded from the purported strike site showed at least two dozen corpses wearing Russian army uniforms. Footage published by the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency showed a farm field smoking from an undetermined cause, as a Russian voice states two or three companies of troops had been formed up on orders of a senior commander, and then hit by Ukrainian munitions.

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The voice states that two sub-units – the 4th and 6th companies, each a formation normally numbering between 80-120 soldiers – were “totally cut down.”

Unmoving bodies lie in the field with smoke rising from the ground around them, the video shows. Cuts from the video show more than 20 probable dead. No wounded are shown.

Most reports said Russian losses killed were between 60-67 men. At least 300 personnel were wounded, some unconfirmed reports said.

Still images apparently taken during emergency response to the strike showed uniformed corpses with head injuries, but little visible damage to legs and arms. In those photographs few men are shown to be wearing protective gear, and rifles, helmets and body armor are piled nearby. 

Some reports identified the unit purportedly struck as a battalion from 39th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, a regular Russian army unit based on the Far Eastern island of Sakhalin. More accounts said the formation hit in the attack was made up of members of 36th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, a unit drawn from Russia’s east Siberian Zabaikal territory.

The voice speaking with a working-class accent blames General Moiseev and Russian army obsession with organizing formal ceremonies and propaganda events, even during a shooting war, for the carnage. Most of the victims, per that account, were junior commanders.

The Russian opposition Russia No Context Telegram channel, among others, identified Col. G. Musaev, the commander of 36th Motor Rifle, as the most senior officer killed in the strike.

The alleged location site of the Ukrainian attack, near the village of Trudivske, had been used by Ukrainian troops for training since the mid-2010s, and captured by advancing Russian troops in 2022.

First fielded by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in summer 2023, the US-made HIMARS artillery system has become one of the Ukrainian Ground Force’s most effective long-range weapons.

In past attacks, AFU commanders had used the truck- or armored carrier-mounted rocket launcher to hit targets as far as 80 km distant. Located some 30 km. behind Russian lines, Trudivske is well within range of the precision-guided artillery munitions.

Ukrainian and Russian milbloggers widely described the images as accurate and said the strike took place at a training area near Trudivske and inflicted dozens of casualties on Russian troops transported to a field to await a visit by General Moiseeva.

Ukrainian mainstream media, by Wednesday, was widely describing the Trudivske  strike as highly probable.

The semi-official Ukrainian source Operativny ZSU on Wednesday reported the strike “probably” took place but that the images required confirmation. Kyiv Post was unable to validate the images and reports accuracy independently.

The Wednesday morning Chief of General Staff (GCS) situation estimate, a daily official Ukrainian military report of combat activity over the past 24 hours, made no mention of a strike near the Trudivske village. Official Kremlin sources, likewise, had not commented on the alleged Trudivske strike by midday Wednesday.