Ukrainian HIMARS Missile Fires Massive Salvo, Video Taken Near Kherson Region Claims

A long salvo was seen firing up toward the sky in a video uploaded online by a Reddit user, who claimed the clip showed a large HIMARS missile.

The Reddit user claimed the clip was recorded somewhere near the Kherson region.

The video comes a little more than a month after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky described the HIMARS missiles as "changing the course of the war."

International Business Times could not confirm the authenticity of the video.

The long-range artillery known as HIMARS — M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System supplied to Ukraine by the U.S. — were used to hit dozens of Russian targets since Ukrainian forces deployed them at the end of June or beginning of July.

The U.S. said they supplied Ukraine with 16 HIMARS, each of which had a range of up to 50 miles, and was a match for the Russian Smerch missiles, which can also fire up to a similar range.

HIMARS is a multiple-launch rocket system mounted on a military truck weighing about five tonnes. It can quickly fire six guided missiles one after the other. The rockets are GPS-guided, and are believed to have more accuracy than Russian Smerch missiles when it comes to hitting their targets.

In a Facebook post in July, Zelensky had written: "And although the firepower of the Ukrainian army is less than that of the enemy, our warriors still strike more skillfully and accurately."

In a new strategy adopted by Ukraine to stand up against an enemy that outnumbers and outguns them, a fleet of decoys resembling advanced U.S. rocket systems have also been used as dummies, which has led to Russian forces mistakenly attacking them, the Washington Post reported this week.

Russian forces have been tricked by the wooden replicas and wasted expensive long-range cruise missiles on them. This is because Russian drones cannot distinguish these wooden decoys from the artillery battery and end up transmitting their locations to Russian forces.

When the battery is spotted, "it's like a VIP target," a senior Ukrainian official told the outlet.

The senior official said the decoys have been successful so far as Russian forces wasted at least 10 Kalibr cruise missiles on them.

The report also said Russia may also be accounting for the destroyed replicas in their battle damage assessment on Western artillery.

"They've claimed to have hit more HIMARS than we have even sent," a U.S. diplomat told the outlet.