Video shows Ukraine blowing up a sophisticated radio-jammer that Russia tried to hide

Video shows Ukraine blowing up a sophisticated radio-jammer that Russia tried to hide
  • Ukraine's army said it blew up a Russian radio jammer in a Wednesday Facebook post.

  • Aerial video shows the semi-hidden equipment in flames amid a cluster of rural buildings.

  • The location has been identified as the Kharkiv region, where Russians have been in retreat.

Ukraine's army shared a video on Wednesday showing the destruction of a valuable Russian radio jammer hidden among farm buildings in Kharkiv.

The video, posted to the Facebook page for a branch of the Ukrainian military, showed an aerial view of rural buildings, annotated to point out Russian equipment hidden there.

What appeared to be an antenna could be viewed sticking out. There were at least six vehicles, described by Ukraine as armored fighting vehicles, guarding it.

A few seconds in, the video cuts to footage of plumes of smoke and flame coming from the same spot. The footage doesn't show the moment of the strike, or give an detail about the weapons used.

Ukraine said the equipment it destroyed was a R-330Zh, also known as the "Zhitel," which "is designed for automated detection, direction-finding and analysis of radio signals," according to the Ukrainian army statement.

The Zhitel is key to Russian electronic warfare, according to the website Army Technology, which wrote that it also works to jam satellite communications with a range of 20-30km and cellular signals up to 50km away.

The attack was a joint operation between Ukrainian ground and air forces, the army's post said.

A compsite showing, on the right, an aerial view of buildings as posted by the Ukrainian army; and left, an aerial view as they appear on Google Maps. They have the same building footprint.
Left: Google Maps imagery dated 2022 of farmhouses in Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast. Right: The aerial view posted by the Ukrainian Army.Google Maps / Command of the Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine / Insider

The army's statement did not identify when or where the strike took place, but open-source intelligence enthusiasts on social media geolocated it to a tiny settlement outside Izyum, a city 120 km southeast of Kharkiv.

Google Maps imagery dated to 2022, at the site they identified, showed the same building footprint as well as the same distinctive blue-and-white striped rooftop as appears in the video. The two are compared in the image above.

Ukraine said on May 14 that Russian troops were withdrawing from the Kharkiv region.

An aerial video still from the Ukrainian army showing a dark plume of smoke coming from a rural building. It has been identified as being in Kharkiv Oblast.
An aerial video still from the Ukrainian army showing a dark plume of smoke coming from a rural building. It has been identified as being in Kharkiv Oblast.Command of the Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, agreed in a May 13 report that Ukraine "appears to have won the Battle of Kharkiv."

It said that Russian ground troops were still attempting to hold onto various areas, including Izyum.

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