{"id":26688,"date":"2026-08-10T22:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T22:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/26688\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T22:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T22:11:09","slug":"moment-ukraines-black-forest-brigade-destroys-russian-air-defence-command-centre-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/26688\/","title":{"rendered":"Moment Ukraine\u2019s Black Forest Brigade destroys Russian air defence command centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Explosive video footage purportedly shows the moment a Ukrainian drone destroyed a Russian military vehicle<\/a> used to coordinate vital air defences.<\/p>\n

Ukraine<\/a>‘s ‘Black Forest’ Reconnaissance Brigade claimed to have struck what it said was the command-and-staff vehicle for a Soviet-era S-300 <\/a>surface-to-air missile system.<\/p>\n

Video published on Sunday showed the moment of impact from above as a loitering drone hit the side of the truck with devastating effect, sending smoke billowing from the wreckage.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The moment of impact in footage shared on Sunday from an undisclosed location (15th Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade \/ YouTube)<\/p>\n

In a social media post, the brigade said it would have been a “very painful blow” to the Russian forces, and destroying it would allow Ukrainian vehicles to fly deeper into Russia<\/a> to hit strategic targets.<\/p>\n

It added: “They are also stuffed with rare electronics, are damn expensive, and it takes years to train the crew. An approach on such a target is a very painful blow for the enemy.”<\/p>\n

The Russian vehicle appeared to be a 5K76 command-and-control vehicle, or its more modern 5K76M variant, according to Ukraine’s official fundraising platform United24.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A huge orange explosion from the truck at the moment of impact (15th Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade \/ YouTube)<\/p>\n

The 5K76 serves as a mobile command centre for the S-300, also known by its Nato reporting name SA-10 Grumble.<\/p>\n

The S-300s were a family of surface-to-air missile systems developed by Russia, then the Soviet Union, in the late 1970s and can fire missiles at incoming targets up to 40 kilometres from the command centre.<\/p>\n

Use peaked in 2000 as Russia fielded around 1,900 launchers. That had dropped to about 800 by 2017, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies<\/a>. Some were sent to Crimea after 2014.<\/p>\n

There is no publicly available cost estimate for the 5K76.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Russian surface-to-air missile system S-300 in 2012 (file) (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

The US and Ukraine are separately reported to be working on modernising the Ukrainian S-300 air defence systems as Russia steps up its attacks on residential hubs nationwide.<\/p>\n

Kyiv has repeatedly asked Western allies for more air defences to protect critical infrastructure and civilian areas from frequent Russian missile and drone attacks.<\/p>\n

In highest demand are the American Patriot interceptors, key to defending against a nightly barrage of Russian ballistic missile strikes.<\/p>\n

But the Iran war<\/a> has drained arsenals in the US and the Gulf, and some European countries are holding onto missiles they may need for their own defence.<\/p>\n

Col. Robert Hamilton (Ret.) told PBS<\/a> last week: “There’s a joint US-Ukrainian effort going on to essentially retrofit or upgrade the old S-300 missiles or a newer variant of the S-300 and give it better capabilities.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An illustration of the command vehicle for the S-300 SAM system (15th Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade \/ YouTube)<\/p>\n

“And so that should come online near the end of this year. But, again, we’re talking 100 or a couple of hundred a year that could be produced.”<\/p>\n

He said those variants could “help fill this Patriot gap”.<\/p>\n

US president Donald Trump<\/a> offered Ukraine the right to make its own Patriot interceptors in July, but later reneged, saying the US has “not agreed” to such an arrangement.<\/p>\n

Russia has tried to deter the US from giving Ukraine the means to defend itself, warning that donating interceptors would amount to a direct escalation. Moscow has said it would delay the chance of peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explosive video footage purportedly shows the moment a Ukrainian drone destroyed a Russian military vehicle used to coordinate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1240,25,819,26,4013],"class_list":["post-26688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-air-defences","tag-russia","tag-russian-military","tag-ukraine","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}