New Russian claims of the destruction of a Ukrainian air defence system in a missile strike have emerged from the Kremlin.

Video images – released by Russian defence officials – claim to show what appears to be an attack on the outskirts of an urban area before there is a sudden explosion near what look like civilian houses.

The footage then cuts to what appears to be a large blast, with smoke rising into the air.

The footage, which appears to have been shot from a drone, then cuts again, multiple times, and shows what appears to be the same area from different angles.

But it is unclear if the Russian footage – which runs for a total of three minutes and five seconds – shows the same strike over and over again, or if it shows multiple strikes one after the other.

Sceptics have observed that the recording apparently loops at some point, without any explanation from Moscow.

The release of the video comes as Russia faces mounting criticism over the death and destruction caused to civilian areas by its forces’ bombardments.

It also emerges amid reports that Ukrainian troops have captured one of Russia’s state-of-the-art missile control units, the Barnaul-T.

Newsflash obtained the images and a short statement from the Russian Ministry of Defence, which said that the footage shows the “destruction of a Buk-M1 air defence missile system” belonging to “the Armed Forces of Ukraine” with a “high-precision missile strike”.

The Buk-M1 missile system was first developed by the Soviet Union before development was handed over to its successor, the Russian Federation. It is geared towards countering cruise missiles, aircraft and UAVs.

They were used by Russia during its 2008 invasion of Georgia and they are also currently being used by Russian forces in Ukraine. Ukraine also allegedly uses them, according to the Russian state-owned news agency TASS.

The footage of the strike or strikes was also carried by Russian media, including the state-owned outlets RIA Novosti and Zvezda, with the latter saying: “Over the course of the special military operation to protect Donbas, the Russian Armed Forces attacked three anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM), one of which was an S-300, near the town of Malin, Zhytomyr region, as well as two Buk-M1s in the areas of Ugledar and Slavyansk.”

Ugledar, also known as Vuhledar, is a city in Donetsk Oblast, in eastern Ukraine, as is Slavyansk, also called Sloviansk. It is currently unclear above which of these two cities these images were allegedly filmed.