The moment the self-propelled artillery exploded before the eyes of Russian soldiers

On April 22, a Russian soldier’s social network account posted a video of the country’s army fighting on the Lugansk front, eastern Ukraine, including scenes of soldiers deploying 2S5 Giatsint-S self-propelled guns next to the forest. . The cannon suddenly exploded violently, causing the person holding the camera to quickly turn around and run away. It is unclear what caused the weapon to explode and the associated damage.

OSINT (Uri), an open source intelligence analysis account with 50,000 followers on X, said the cannon was attacked by a Ukrainian first-person drone (FPV drone), but did not provide evidence. proof.

The next segment of the video shows a cannon being destroyed or severely damaged, but it does not appear to be the one that exploded in the previous segment, because the surrounding trees have lost their leaves and are not as lush as the original scene.

Based on the surrounding environment, open source intelligence analysis account Naalsio determined that the explosion was filmed around the fall of 2023, while the cannon’s destruction was later recorded in the winter or early spring of 2023. now.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has not commented on the information.

2S5 Giatsint-S is a 152 mm self-propelled gun system developed since the Soviet era to replace the M-46 130 mm long-barreled field gun. Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan are operating this artillery model.

The 2S5 Giatsint-S is equipped with a 2A37 gun that can fire conventional bullets with a maximum range of 28.4 km, and high explosive (HE) bullets of 37 km, with an average rate of fire of 5-6 rounds/minute. with 7.62 mm PKT machine gun. The gun is placed on a converted GM-123 tracked vehicle chassis, has a speed of 63 km/h, and a range of 500 km.

The armor of the 2S5 Giatsint-S can resist the fire of infantry weapons or fragments of artillery shells.

According to Oryx, a war information analysis site based in the Netherlands, Russia has lost at least 63 2S5 Giatsint-S complexes since the beginning of the war, including destroyed, severely damaged or confiscated. Ukraine lost at least three 2S5 Giatsint-S for similar reasons.

On April 22, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense shared a video of the country’s special forces deploying HIMARS multiple launch rockets to attack a Russian 2S5 Giatsint-S hiding in the bushes on the southern front, causing this weapon to damaged.

The rocket artillery model transferred by the US to Ukraine recently repeatedly and successfully attacked Russian equipment. Video posted on April 21 shows Ukrainian forces using HIMARS artillery to attack the radar location and command post of the Russian S-300 or S-400 air defense system, seemingly destroying the radar.

Pham Giang (According to Newsweek, Militarnyi, AR)