Ukrainian soldiers show how they destroyed Russian S-400 air defence system – video

The 15th Separate Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade (Black Forest) has shown footage of its successful work in destroying a Russian long- and medium-range S-400 Triumph air defence missile system. The event itself took place in the spring, but Ukrainska Pravda is posting the video for the first time.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda article, "God's eyes. How Ukrainian artillery reconnaissance made the leap towards the destruction of "state-of-the-art" Russian equipment"

Details: Kostiantyn, a platoon commander  of unmanned aerial systems from the 15th Separate Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade (Black Forest), stated that while it was not difficult to locate the Russian S-400, it was challenging to strike it.

This is because the S-400 is typically protected by a number of less powerful air defence systems tasked with destroying all reconnaissance drones.

The commander stated that they had a general idea of where weaknesses in the Russian defences might exist. However, it was not ruled out that the Russians might have had some electronic warfare systems that they were unaware of prior to the mission. As a result, the operators' stress increased with each kilometre of drone flight.

The first drone flying to strike the S-400 system was shot down by the Russians.

Quote: "Actually, sending a second drone was a dumb move. Because if you were shot down for the first time, the enemy is operating in active mode. It's unlikely that they'd sit still and think: ‘Ah well, this one was shot down; let’s go rest’. The probability of this happening is minimal, no more than a coincidence," Kostiantyn explained.

But Kostiantyn said the crew went through with this "dumb" decision, launched the second drone into the air, and it broke through the defences, leaving the drone operators impressed and pleased to see the S-400 system on the screen.

Quote: "In certain areas, there are S-300s and S-400s, which are constantly performing manoeuvres and movements. And no one touched them because they were far enough away from the front lines – and they were quite at ease [since the Russians were under the impression that Ukrainian forces would not reach them – ed.].

Usually, the Russians keep launchers, radar stations and command posts separate. But they were so brazen that they placed everything together. We saw this on the screen and said to ourselves, ‘It can't be possible.’ But it was. And we had no choice but to deliver one blow to the entire division."

He added that this Russian equipment turned out to be quite good: the S-400 was even able to intercept some missiles fired at it. But the rest made it to the target and burned down the Russian so-called  "unparallelled system".

Kostiantyn said that their drone was shot down on the way to the base with a Russian Pantsir air defence system.

"It is a pity that the drone was shot down. But it had accomplished its mission. This story is not the only one we have. We destroyed not only an S-400, but also an S-300 and an S-350," he concluded. 

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