Ukraine uses US-made M142 HIMARS Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) for the first time

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) employed the M142 HIMARS Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), which was produced in the US, for the first time, according to representatives of the Luhansk People’s Republic at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire. A HIMARS rocket has hit the town of Perevalsk, according to a posting on the departments’ Telegram channel.

“The shelling was recorded from the side of the armed formations of Ukraine: at 07.20 from the direction of the settlement of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) on the settlement of Perevalsk with the use of the M142 HIMARS MLRS (one missile),” the report said.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Marochko of the People’s Militia of the LPR, Ukraine employed HIMARS MLRS for the first time in this operation.

On June 25, Valeriy Zaluzhny, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), declared that the HIMARS systems of the United States were already in action on a region that was not under Ukrainian authority.

On June 23, John Kirby, the White House National Security Council’s (NSC) strategic communications coordinator, said that the US will provide Ukraine $450 million in military aid.

The continuous US weaponry shipments to Ukraine, according to Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to Washington, would only deepen the conflict’s spiral and increase the risk of unpredicted future escalation.

In response, Alexander Perendzhiev, a military political scientist and Associate Professor at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, stated that Ukraine may attempt to launch rocket assaults deep into Russian territory, including Moscow and resort cities, with the use of HIMARS systems.

In his remarks before the Security Council, Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, said that Moscow reserved the right to shift the threat lines away from its and Donbass’s borders to a range equivalent to the range of the American multiple launch rocket systems that had been delivered to Ukraine. Additionally, he warned that if Kiev deployed HIMARS systems, Russia would launch precise missile attacks against military decision-making centers.