Strike At Ilovaisk: HIMARS Eliminates Large Concentration Of Russian Military During Examination

They lost experienced UAV operators.

Details have emerged of the HIMARS missile strike on the Russian military training area of Vostochny near Ilovaisk, which killed 24 Russian military personnel.

On 24 January, on the territory of military unit No. 78528, located near the village of Pokrovka, classes were held to train soldiers in the use of UAVs.

"It was a kind of exam. They were transported by two buses. After the 'exam' the servicemen gathered near the parked UAZs and minibuses," the Russian Vchk-OGPU telegram channel reported.

At 14:40, a shell of the HIMARS missile system hit this cluster of military personnel and vehicles.

"During the strike, 22 servicemen were killed instantly. They were discovered immediately. And the bodies of two others were found later. Three Russian servicemen were hospitalised with mine blast wounds. In addition, two UAZ Patriot, one UAZ 452 (Bukhanka) and one Ford Transit were destroyed in the strike. Apparently, they were used to transport participants of the UAV training programme," Russian media quoted details as saying.

What happened: Russian media version

The sounds of explosions in Ilovaisk, which is far from the front line, were reported by local blogs on Wednesday 24 January. Russian blogger Vladimir Romanov even wrote that a missile strike on the training ground had killed the operators of the Doomsday Project drones from the so-called Pavel Sudoplatov battalion. At the same time, the commander allegedly sent a message to the operators in advance about the time and place of the training.

Remarkably, the Russian military correspondent added: 'No one was hit except the UAV operators, although there were more than 150 people on the training ground.

The Russians blamed Ukraine, saying the shelling came from HIMARS MLRS. At the same time, according to Russian media, there are allegedly dead and wounded Russian military personnel as a result of the shelling. According to the Russian Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories), the number is 24.

The information about the strike, and specifically the drone operators, was indirectly confirmed by pro-Kremlin political analyst Alexei Chadayev, who, according to Radio Liberty, oversees programmes on the Russian military's use of drones.

"On the Sudoplatov polygon. Let's not underestimate the enemy and blame everything on the organisers. Unfortunately, the enemy is like this: each operator - a valuable target, and many operators and instructors in one place - a very important target," Chadayev writes.

What happened: the version of the Ukrainian public

One of the first bloggers and journalists, Denis Kazansky, reported the incident near Ilovaisky on his social network X. He also referred to Russian channels.

The same information was confirmed by military correspondent Yuri Butusov on his Telegram channel on 25 January. However, he did not confirm the authenticity of this information either, although he did say that on Thursday 25 January, local telegram channels in occupied Ilovaisk reported a large number of ambulances in the city and explosions at the military training area, resulting in deaths and injuries.