Border guards destroy Russian IFV with BS-3 gun

5 December, 2024 Soviet anti-tank gun BS-3 in service with the Defense Forces, 2023. Illustrative photo. Artillerymen of the 15th "Steel Border" Border Guard Detachment hit a Russian combat vehicle with a Stalin-era cannon in the Sumy region.

The footage of the battle was posted on the unit's page. The Ukrainian crew of the BS-3 anti-tank gun struck a moving target with a direct hit, shooting from a closed firing position with indirect fire. The first 100-mm high-explosive fragmentation shell exploded close to the Russian IFV, and the next one hit its left side.

Border guard BS-3

The BS-3 anti-tank gun, which is now 80 years old, was developed by Soviet designers in 1944 as a response to the introduction of heavy Tiger tanks and Ferdinand self-propelled howitzers. Until the full-scale Russian invasion, border guard units did not have their own artillery, but as the situation escalated, they were armed with these guns as field artillery. Thanks to its good ballistics performance and powerful ammunition, it can effectively hit targets at a distance of up to 20 kilometers.

Judging by the photos, the BS-3s were recommissioned from the Ministry of Defense's storage bases. At the same time, new foreign-made 100-mm shells can be seen in the footage of soldiers in combat. In particular, one of the videos shows Serbian M63P1 high explosive unitary fragmentation rounds manufactured by BALKAN NovoTeh.

The 15.6 kg ammunition is equipped with a warhead with a 1.4 kg explosive (TNT) payload, which makes it possible to effectively fire at troops in open areas, fortifications, and light armored vehicles.

Serbian 100mm M63P1 ammunition in use by the artillery of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, 2024. Photo credits: 15th Border Guard Detachment "Steel Border"

Ukrainian artillerymen of the 241st and 111th Territorial Defense Brigades also use 100-mm KS-19 anti-aircraft guns as artillery, as well as improvised "gun trucks" based on them.

These systems use the same arsenal of ammunition as the BS-3 and are capable of precision fire from enclosed positions at a range of up to 20 kilometers.

100-mm KS-19 gun on the MAN M1001 8x8 chassis of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, January 2024

Militarnyi previously reported that the Ukrainian military uses D-44, another Soviet cannon.