Ukrainian forces have “destroyed” one of Russia’s newest medium-range air defense systems, according to Kyiv, as battles rage on in the southern Russian Kursk region nearly two months after Ukraine launched its surprise incursion.
“Something went wrong with the [R]ussian Buk M3 air defense system,” the Ukrainian government said in a post to X, formerly Twitter. “The Ukrainian warriors destroyed it.”
Kyiv shared footage appearing to show the strike on the air defense system. Newsweek could not independently verify the clip, but the U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), described the footage as geolocated to a site east of the Kursk city of Rylsk. The Kursk territory currently controlled by Ukraine sits to the southeast of the settlement.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry via email.
Stanislav Krasilnikov / Sputnik via AP
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not specify a time nor location in its brief post, but the 413th Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion—credited by Kyiv with targeting the air defense system—said in a separate post to messaging app Telegram on Monday that it had targeted a Buk-M3 surface-to-air missile system.
The 413th Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion, sharing the same footage, said its forces had located the system in the southern Russian Kursk region. Ukraine has previously said the 413th is operating in Kursk.
The Buk family of air defense systems are medium-range, and Russian state defense exporter, Rosoboronexport, has touted the Buk-M3 as a “milestone in the development of the medium-range ADMS [air defense missile system].”
Designed to intercept air targets, precision-guided munitions and tactical ballistic missiles, the Buk-M3 has a range of up to 65 kilometers, or 40 miles, according to Rosoboronexport.
Ukraine began its surprise incursion more than seven weeks ago, claiming at the start of September to have captured 100 settlements and around 500 square miles of territory as Moscow attempted to fend off the advance. Ukraine largely focused on the border city of Sudzha, which it has controlled for weeks, and Korenevo to the northeast, which remains in Russia’s hands.
Russian and Ukrainian sources then suggested in mid-September that the Kremlin had launched a counteroffensive in Kursk, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed. Russia has said in the past few weeks that it has recaptured several settlements along the border, south of Korenevo.
The ISW think tank said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had recently advanced around the settlement of Glushkovo, southwest of Korenevo. Kyiv advanced to the southeast and east of Veseloye, the ISW added, referring to a settlement southwest of Glushkovo.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that it had “repelled” two Ukrainian attacks around Malaya Loknya—north of Sudzha—and Obukhovka.
“Five attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to break through the border of the Russian Federation in the direction of the settlements of Medvezhye and Novy Put were repelled,” Moscow said. These villages sit right on the Kursk border, south of Glushkovo.