Explosions occur on the outskirts of Luhansk
16 July, 2023 A column of smoke after the explosion in Yuvileine. Photo from social networks. Powerful explosions blasted out on the outskirts of Luhansk.
Denys Kazanskyi reported about the incident on his Twitter. According to local residents, it was a rocket attack. They add that secondary explosions are heard at the site of the impact.
Most likely, the ammunition depot located in the area of the Maschynska mine in the village of Yuvileine was targeted. The village is 76 kilometers from the front line.
Hitting at such a distance is possible with M30A1, M31A1 and M31 missiles from the M270 and M142 HIMARS rocket systems. In addition, missiles of the Vilkha or Vilkha-M system could be used. Firing at such a distance in the case of the M270 and M142 forces the systems to come within a critical distance of the front line, making them vulnerable.
A column of smoke after the explosion in Yuvileine.Photo from social networks.
Therefore, more likely the strike was carried out by Franco-British Storm Shadow (SCALP) cruise missiles. These missiles have already repeatedly hit targets on the territory of the temporarily occupied Lugansk. In June, Militarnyi reported that the Ukrainian servicemen were using Storm Shadow missiles to hit enemy industrial facilities: the October Revolution Factory, the Gloria Jeans factory, and the Luhansk Tsentrokuz factory.
ADM-160B MALD decoy missiles are also used during strikes to distract enemy air defenses.