Ukraine’s army has posted a video of a series of attacks carried out on Russian military positions using lethal precision weapons. The attacks appear to have taken place over the course of the last few weeks and are said to have involved the use of French “Hammer” bombs.
In one clip, a two-story building with a red metal roof is targeted in an air strike carried out by Ukraine’s air force. Although no information is provided on the target, Ukraine has been known to target barracks or a command headquarters inside Russia.
The complex is hit by three munitions in succession, with flames erupting and thick smoke billowing skywards following the strike.
In a post to X, the military blogger Cloooud writes: “Ukrainian Air Forces continue to conduct ruthless strikes on the locations of the Russian invaders and their equipment using NATO-type precision-guided glide bombs (GBU-62, AASM-250 ‘Hammer’, GBU-39).”
The AASM Hammer has become a weapon of choice for Ukraine’s air force thanks to its high accuracy and resistance to Russian electronic warfare.
The lethal weapon is made by the French company Safran, with initial production starting in 2008.
The air-to-surface missile became the standard weapon for the Dassault Rafale, a French twin-engine, multirole fighter.
It was then adapted for use on other aircraft, including the F-16 and Mirage 2000.
The missiles can also be launched from Ukraine’s existing aircraft fleet, many of which date back to Soviet times.
The French government hopes to step up production of the weapon, as it races to resupply Ukraine’s air force.
According to the French news outlet Le Parisien, Safran plans to knock out 1,200 AASM missiles in 2025, up from 830 units produced in 2024.
Another video clip released by Ukraine’s military shows a devastating HIMARS attack on a Russian 2S7 Pion self-propelled cannon as it was reloading.
The HIMARS dropped a M31 GMLRS rocket on the Russian artillery piece, which detonated just above the target, destroying it completely.
The artillery unit costs US$ 3 million (£2.2m), while the missile that destroyed it costs around US$168,000 (£124k), according to the blogger OSINTtechnical.