N.R. Jenzen-Jones & Charlie Randall Images shared via Ukrainian social media accounts on 4 March 2022 show the remnants of a cluster munition, reportedly documented in Pokrovsk—located in Donbas Oblast, eastern Ukraine—following a Russian strike. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to face stiff resistance, increased use of cluster munitions is being documented by
N.R. Jenzen-Jones & Patrick Senft Pictures shared to social media show a Russian 3Б30 (3B30) submunition in Ukraine, apparently photographed during the recent Russian invasion (see Figure 1). 3B30 submunitions were reportedly used to strike the village of Chornomorske, in the Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine (not to be confused with the village of Chornomorske
Kristóf Nagy The automatic, belt-fed UAG-40 grenade launcher is one of the many domestic arms developments to come out of Ukraine in recent years. It was developed and is currently manufactured by Kusnja na Rybalskomu, a shipyard and major arms manufacturer in Kiev, located on the banks of the Dnieper River. Kusnja na Rybalskomu, known
Boris Karpa Amongst the many types of equipment in service with pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine – whether received from Russia or captured from Ukrainian stocks – communications equipment and optics have been in short supply. These items, notable mostly in their shortage, have been important to the war effort, and lamented for their absence.
ImproGuns A shootout with police in the Ukrainian city of Odessa last Friday left 3 people dead including the shooter. The attack appears to have been carried out using one or more craft-produced firearms. Valentin Doroshenko, a 57 year old man who has been identified in some sources as the shooter, was known locally for his pro-Russia
ImproGuns Images shared via social media purport to show new “silent weapons for special forces of the [Donetsk People’s] Republic”. Information accompanying the images claims they are manufactured locally by DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) separatist forces in Donbass. One of the weapons, dubbed ‘Deaf-mute Aunt Tanya from Donbas’, appears to be a modified Russian TT-33 type self-loading pistol which has
ARES Team On 24 April, Boko Haram (the Nigerian affiliate of the Islamic State) released information and images relating to an ambush against a component from the Nigerian Army’s 155 Task Force. Among the captured weapons and equipment is a UAG-40 automatic grenade launcher manufactured by Leninska Kuznya of Ukraine. The UAG-40 is a blowback
Ivan Kochin with Ali Richter As early as the spring of 2014 there were reports of Soviet 9K330 Tor (NATO reporting name: SA-15 ‘Gauntlet’) operating within Ukraine. The 9K330 is a short range, self-propelled surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, first introduced into Soviet service in the late 1970s. Several modernised variants have subsequently been introduced into
Boris Karpa The Ukrainian conflict has resulted in significant numbers of improvised armoured fighting vehicles (AFV) being employed by both Ukrainian security forces and pro-Russian separatist forces. Generally, improvised combat vehicles are manufactured from poor quality components, built by amateurs with no engineering training, under terrible conditions and equipped with ill-fitted weapons and armour. This particular vehicle appears different,
Michael Smallwood An image posted to social media at the beginning of August shows Ukrainian troops atop a tracked 9K35 Strela-10 armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) (NATO reporting name: SA-13 Gopher), with two Soviet B-8 rocket pods fixed in an improvised turret arrangement. It appears Ukrainian forces have developed an improvised multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) on the tracked vehicle.
