Ukraine believes its attacks considerably lower Russia’s potential for offence

• According to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian defence ministry on Friday, more than 30 Russian military supply hubs have been damaged in recent weeks, greatly reducing Russia’s capacity to attack.
• Oleksandr Motuzianyk, the official, singled out the function of the American-made HIMARS rocket systems, one of many long-range weapons delivered by the West to aid Ukraine in its defence against Russia.
• “Motuzianyk said that the 30 targets were eliminated using a variety of launch rocket systems, including HIMARS,

According to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian defence ministry on Friday, more than 30 Russian military supply hubs have been damaged in recent weeks, greatly reducing Russia’s capacity to attack.

Oleksandr Motuzianyk, the official, singled out the function of the American-made HIMARS rocket systems, one of many long-range weapons delivered by the West to aid Ukraine in its defence against Russia.

Motuzianyk stated on national television that “about 30 of the enemy’s military logistics facilities have been destroyed in the recent weeks, as a result, the attacking potential of Russian forces has been considerably diminished.”

Motuzianyk said that the 30 targets were eliminated using a variety of launch rocket systems, including HIMARS,

If true, the remarks would imply that Western weapons are having an effect on the battlefield and would signal a change in the nature of the conflict after almost five months.

The Luhansk region was eventually taken over by Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24. Russia has taken control of a portion of southern Ukraine and utilised its artillery superiority in the east to gradually expand its territory.

On Thursday, a senior Ukrainian general claimed that Russia had not annexed even a “single metre” of territory in the previous week and that Russian supply lines were being damaged by Ukrainian strikes, forcing Moscow to keep its munitions farther away from the front lines. Reports from the battlefield could not be immediately confirmed by Reuters.

Compared to Ukraine’s Soviet-era artillery, HIMARS has a greater range and greater accuracy, enabling Ukrainian forces to hit previously inaccessible Russian objectives.

Without identifying the supplier, Ukraine’s defence minister announced on Friday that Kyiv had received a first shipment of M270 multiple rocket launch systems.

As part of NATO’s “hybrid warfare” against Moscow, Russia on Thursday criticised the United States and Britain for assisting in the training of Ukraine’s armed forces. It claimed that Washington was sending instructors to Ukraine to assist in the use of HIMARS.

In a city located deep within Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine, Kiev said this week that its forces had attacked Russian military infrastructure.

In addition, Motuzianyk claimed that the majority of Russian strikes—the other 70%—landed on civilian targets rather than military targets. Reuters was unable to verify that claim. In what it describes as a “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russia denies intentionally targeting people.