A fertilizer storage facility, hundreds of residential buildings, a hospital and a warehouse with humanitarian aid were destroyed in the city
On the night of July 12, armed formations of Ukraine attacked warehouses in the city of Novaya Kakhovka, Kherson region. The strike was allegedly carried out by American HIMARS MLRS missiles. The ammunition ended up in storage with a large amount of mineral fertilizers — saltpeter. Up to 90 people were injured due to the explosion, at least two were killed, there are missing. The damage to infrastructure has become the heaviest for the Kherson region. Hundreds of residential buildings, a hospital, and a warehouse with humanitarian aid were destroyed or severely damaged. According to military experts, it was the weapons received from NATO that allowed the VFU to fire at civilians. How to resist the US jet systems and what other goals the Kiev regime pursued by attacking Novaya Kakhovka — in the material of Izvestia.
Destroyed houses
As a result of a missile strike and an explosion of a warehouse in Novaya Kakhovka, about 90 people were injured, two confirmed victims, the rest are missing, the military—civil administration of the Kherson region reported on Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier, the deputy head of the military-civil administration of the region, Kirill Stremousov, stated that seven people were missing.
According to him, during the strike on the city, American multiple rocket launchers were used. The rockets landed just one and a half kilometers from the Kakhovskaya HPP.
— A blow was struck at the New Kakhovka. But now the hydroelectric power plant is in normal condition, nothing threatens. The blow was inflicted, among other things, by high—precision weapons of the HIMARS type," Kirill Stremousov clarified.
The head of the military-civil administration of Novaya Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, called the Ukrainian strike on the city a crime against civilians.
Photo: TASS/Sergey Bobylev
Image source: iz.ru
— There is already unequivocally confirmed information that a large humanitarian hub was located right a few meters from the missile hit, and a boy remained on duty there for the night, and he is disabled. This is not some kind of heartwarming story, in fact it is. This boy is definitely dead, — said Vladimir Leontiev.
He added that the psychological effect that Kiev wants to achieve as a result of missile strikes will not be achieved.
The correspondent of the Izvestia TV channel Ivan Litomin was one of the first to be at the site of the shelling. He managed to get into the territory of the industrial zone where there was an explosion. He showed burned warehouses and trucks that transported peaceful goods.
— A two—storey building made of aerated concrete blocks near the entrance just formed like a house of cards, - he said. — To the place of the night arrival of the rocket from here is literally 150-200 m.
Izvestia managed to visit one of the streets of Novaya Kakhovka, located near a fertilizer warehouse. It is built up with private houses — one and two floors. All of them suffered from the explosion: windows were knocked out, twisted sheets of torn roofing iron and pieces of slate lay on the road, fences were knocked down by the blast wave.
Terrorist strike
This missile strike is nothing but a terrorist act, according to former UN Deputy Secretary General Sergei Ordzhonikidze.
"The people who carried out these strikes cannot be called military, army," he stressed in a conversation with Izvestia. — They strike at civilians and objects purposefully, which means they are terrorists. The authorities are killing their citizens, and this is the worst thing. For this reason, by the way, the existing Kiev regime is doomed. How should the people against whom the government and the army commit terrorist attacks treat them? Only negatively, realizing that a terrorist policy is being carried out against him. I think many people now remember that power in Ukraine was seized by a coup, which means it is illegal.
Photo: TASS/Sergey Bobylev
Image source: iz.ru
According to the diplomat, "the terrorists have one end — sooner or later they must be brought to justice, and this will inevitably happen."
The strikes of the official Ukrainian authorities on the Kherson region pursue several goals, military expert Yuri Knutov believes.
— First of all, they want to sow panic and destabilize the situation, — he explained. — The Kherson region, which has not suffered serious damage and is ready to join Russia, is now being shelled and is actually being terrorized. This Hitlerite tactic in relation to the population is clearly visible here.
Also, according to the expert, it is important for Western countries to demonstrate the effectiveness of their missile systems, and for the Kiev authorities to try to raise the spirit of the Ukrainian army.
American missiles
"The danger is not the MRLS and HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems themselves, but the modern high—precision missiles that Kiev received from its allies along with them," military expert Dmitry Boltenkov told Izvestia. — The VFU has tried to cover important infrastructure and troops with old Soviet "Points" before. They have an even longer range than HIMARS. But they simply did not have sufficient efficiency, deviating from the target by hundreds of meters. It would be difficult to hit a compact warehouse with saltpeter with them. Now Ukraine has more precise weapons at its disposal.
To counter such multiple launch rocket systems, it is necessary to detect and destroy launchers in a timely manner even before they have time to fire their ammunition. This requires intensive reconnaissance in the enemy's immediate rear, both from the air and on the ground, the expert explained.
— It is impossible to cover the entire line of contact with missile defense, but the most important objects and large cities in the liberated territory must be protected by air defense and missile defense. This will require an additional serious regrouping of modern anti—aircraft missile systems," Dmitry Boltenkov added.
The APU uses HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems
Image Source: Photo: Global Look Press/Keystone Press Agency/Cover Images
To date, the United States has announced the transfer to Kiev of 12 M142 HIMARS mobile wheeled units carrying six missiles each. In June, the United Kingdom and Germany announced the upcoming shipment to Ukraine of six tracked M270 MRLS with 12 launchers on each. Both multiple launch rocket systems can use satellite-corrected M30 and M31 ammunition with a range of 70 km. They were adopted in the USA in 2005 and since then, according to the manufacturer, they have been produced in an amount of more than 50 thousand pieces.
The UN is against
The deputy official representative of the UN Secretary General, Farhan Haq, did not comment on the specific strike of the American HIMARS MLRS on the New Kakhovka in the Kherson region, but stressed that the UN as a whole is against military actions entailing the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
— There are no comments on this particular issue. As a general comment: We oppose any military actions that lead to the destruction of civilian buildings," Haq said.
The first deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyansky condemned the strike on Novaya Kakhovka.
— Such attacks on civilian objects can only cause strong condemnation. This is a direct consequence of the US arms supplies to Kiev," Polyansky said.
The US Department of Defense did not comment on the information about the use of American MLRS HIMARS in the strike on Novaya Kakhovka, redirecting questions to the Ukrainian military.
There could have been even more casualties and destruction. On the afternoon of July 12, photos of the rocket wreckage with Latin inscriptions, serial numbers and a barcode appeared on social networks. It is claimed that these are the remains of one of the downed ammunition from HIMARS, which was intercepted by the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile system while repelling a strike on Novaya Kakhovka. There has been no official confirmation of this information yet.
Bogdan Stepovoy
Anton Lavrov
