This slick footage shows a fearsome Russian Buk missile system launching a missile into the sky over Ukraine.

Newsflash obtained the video from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Russian Federation yesterday (Tuesday, 24th May).

The Russian MoD said (in English): “Reliable shield: footage of Russian Buk-M3 crews in action.”

Zvezda – a Russian state-owned nationwide TV network run by the Russian Ministry of Defence – said the Buk-M3 missile system destroyed Tochka-U missiles fired by the Ukrainian Army.

The Buk-M3 is the latest incarnation of the Buk missile system – a family of self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the Soviet Union and Russia and designed to counter cruise missiles, smart bombs, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The system was notoriously used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over an area in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian rebels on 17th July 2014, killing 298 people.

The governments of the Netherlands and Australia held Russia responsible for the deployment of the Buk missile system.

In its latest update last night, the Russian MoD said (also in English): “Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu took part in a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Participants discussed the military-political situation in the CSTO area of responsibility, the situation in Ukraine and developed proposals to jointly counter challenges and threats to collective security.

“Russian Aerospace Forces and Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force conduct joint air patrol in the Pacific Rim.

“Specialists of the Black Sea Fleet and engineering troops have completed demining of the Mariupol port area.

“High-precision air-based missiles have hit 3 command posts, 36 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration, 1 self-propelled artillery division of the 14th Mechanized Brigade near Soledar, as well as 6 ammunition depots in Minkovka, Bakhmut, Nikolaevka, Spornoe and Krasnyi Liman in the Donetsk People’s Republic, including 1 large depot of 155 mm shells for US M-777 howitzer in Razdolovka during the day.

“The humanitarian situation in regions under the control of the Kiev authorities is rapidly deteriorating and approaching a critical level. According to the UN Children’s Fund, there are 8.7 million hungry people in Ukraine, with 22.8 per cent of children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition.”