AERIAL ASSAULT
Ukraine blitzes Russian base with US long-range missile killing more than 100 troops in latest battlefield blow for Vlad
The bold strike behind enemy lines can be seen in the video above
UKRAINE has wiped out dozens of Russian fighters after blitzing their base with a US missile.
Aerial images show Ukrainian troops lining up to strike a huge group of Vladimir Putin's forces in the eastern city of Luhansk.
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Footage shows the military training ground some 48 miles behind the frontline being blasted by multiple explosions.
More than 100 Russian soldiers are believed to have been killed in the strike after Ukraine unleashed an (Army Tactical Missile Systems) tactical ballistic missile.
The ATACMS showered the training troops with hundreds of M74 APAM mini-bombs.
It comes as yet another humiliation for Putin after the UK claimed 450,000 Russia soldiers had been killed or wounded in Ukraine.
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That's an average of 560 troops per day since he unleashed his bloodbath over two years ago.
For the first time last month, Ukraine used £800,000 ATACMS after they were secretly sent over by the US.
The long-range ballistic missiles were used for blistering attacks on a military base in Crimea and on Russian forces in occupied Ukraine.
Last week, it was announced that Washington had quietly shipped ATACMS to Ukraine in recent weeks.
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The tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missiles are fitted with a 500lb warhead and can reach targets 300km away in just five minutes, three times the speed of UK-supplied Storm Shadows.
The costly weapons can be used for precise strikes on targets behind enemy lines in record amounts of time.
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Ukraine had long tried to get its hands on some ATACMS but the US had held off supplying them over fears they may be used to strike Russia.
The killer 2,300mph missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance it had with the mid-range version of the weapon it received from the US last October.
And the ATACMS can be launched by a M-142 Himars artillery rocket system, which is already in use on the battlefield.
Now Ukraine has used the deadly weapon on an attack on Russian forces in Luhansk.
The Institute for the Study of War said: "Geolocation footage suggests that Ukrainian forces struck a Russian training ground southwest of Mozhnyakovka, killing 116 Russian troops."
And in another blow for Russian forces, a speculator video shows the moment Ukraine destroyed a launcher and a charger of a Russian Buk complex with six missiles in the direction of Sumy.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States plans to send more of the long-range missiles to Ukraine.
He said: "They will make a difference. But as I've said before at this podium... there is no silver bullet."
Former US General Ben Hodges hailed ATACMS as playing a "critical role in neutralising Russia’s only advantage - mass, [being] lots of soldiers".
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Hodges, the former commander of the US Army in Europe, told The Sun they will have a "significant" effect on he battlefield.
"Now every square meter of Russian-occupied Ukraine is within range of ATACMS...which means that every HQ, logistics site, key weapon system and airfield in that area can be hit.
"Crimea can soon be untenable for the Russian navy and air force."
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