Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces struck Russian rear areas in Luhansk Oblast with British Storm Shadow cruise missiles on May 12 and 13, prompting heightened Russian anxiety about potential Ukrainian abilities to target Russian logistics, the US-based think tank Institute for the Study of War says.
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) claimed on 13 May that Ukrainian aircraft struck industrial facilities in occupied Luhansk City with a Storm Shadow cruise missile on 12 May.
Geolocated footage published on 13 May shows the aftermath of Ukrainian strikes on Yuvileyne (7km west of Luhansk City) on 13 May, and Russian sources widely claimed that Ukrainian forces also used Storm Shadow cruise missiles in the subsequent strike (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17).
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1657643789131870211
A Russian milblogger claimed that a Storm Shadow cruise missile would have caused more damage, however, and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) “Internal Ministry” claimed that Ukrainian forces used “Hrim-2” missiles to conduct the May 12 strike.
United Kingdom Defense Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed on 12 May that the UK is supplying Ukraine with the missiles but did not specify when or even if Ukraine received them.
ISW has not observed visual confirmation that Ukrainian forces have used Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike Russian positions in Ukraine. Russian milbloggers claimed that the strike illustrates that Ukrainian forces may be able to target airfields and rear deployment and logistics centers in areas previously considered to be completely safe.
A prominent Russian milblogger compared the alleged use of the cruise missiles to the summer of 2022 when Ukrainian forces began using HIMARS rockets to target Russian logistics in Kherson Oblast and argued that the Russian information space is similarly attempting to downplay the impact that such systems may have.
On 12 May, the administrative building of the defunct Poly-Pack and Milam factories in Luhansk were destroyed by missiles, according to Luhansk occupation authorities:
#Luhansk (occupied): Two hits, the first on the Poly-Pack plant (videos show its destroyed building, location:https://t.co/7epUC036XW), the second – ? (people speculate that it was an oil depot, but it's much further and it would produce more smoke than the factory) pic.twitter.com/Ou6dCSNcu3
— English Luhansk (@loogunda) May 12, 2023
The occupation authorities initially claimed that Ukraine used the domestic Hrim missiles:
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1657109639132073990?sdfs
Later they said the British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles were used. One of the photos of alleged remnants of the missiles used to hit targets in occupied Luhansk shows the marking mentioning the Storm Shadow:
https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1657317762157477888?sdfds
On 13 May, first there was a strike on Russian barracks in Luhansk’s Yuvileine settlement:
https://twitter.com/64_garuda/status/1657276370081263618?sdfs
Them something was hit near Oboronna street:
Occupied #Luhansk: two more strikes reported in the city in the evening. pic.twitter.com/Sd7JcHohtW
— English Luhansk (@loogunda) May 13, 2023
Read also:
UK confirms supply of long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine (updated)
