Ukraine mounts rocket launchers on BMW cars.

Ukrainian forces are mounting BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers onto BMW vehicles, apparently to bolster their firepower on the Bakhmut front.

Last week, Ukraine's 114th Territorial Defense Brigade posted a video on Facebook showing its forces using BMW Series 3 vehicles to deploy BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers to attack Russian targets near the village of Kleshcheevka on the Bakhmut front.

In the video, the Grad rocket launcher is mounted onto the rear bumper of the vehicle using a special bracket. A complete Grad launcher has 40 launch tubes, but the Ukrainian soldiers appear to have only mounted three tubes onto the BMW, possibly because the vehicle is not sturdy enough to support the entire launcher like a truck.

The video, filmed from multiple angles, shows Ukrainian forces launching three rockets from this special system to strike a Russian target. The latter part of the video shows a large column of smoke rising, seemingly the scene of the attack. "We 'burned' the enemy," the account of the 114th Brigade wrote.

Ukraine mounts rocket launchers on cars. — The 114th Brigade of Ukraine deploys BM-21 rocket launchers mounted on BMW vehicles in a video posted on December 22nd. Video: *114th Brigade*

The BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher system, manufactured by the Soviet Union and put into service in 1963, consists of 40 122 mm caliber launch tubes mounted on a Ural-375D truck chassis.

The BM-21 Grad is considered highly effective in bombarding large-scale targets. Within 20 seconds, a Grad system can simultaneously fire 40 rockets at a range of 5-21 km, targeting areas up to 140 km².

Bakhmut is a city that Ukraine lost to Russia in May, after what is considered the bloodiest and longest battle since the conflict began. An estimated thousands of soldiers on each side were killed after 10 months of fighting there, earning Bakhmut the nickname "the meat grinder".

Ukrainian forces subsequently concentrated their efforts on retaking Bakhmut, but only managed to regain control of the suburban villages of Kleshcheevka and Andreevka in late September and have not made any further progress. Fighting is now frequent in the western part of the city.

Ukraine says its military wants to regain control of Bakhmut to contain Russian forces, prevent them from advancing further west, and directly target Kyiv's front lines in the region.

Meanwhile, Russian military expert Vladislav Ugolny believes Ukraine is focusing its efforts on Bakhmut because it is a matter of "honor," as the city was once a symbol of Kyiv's resistance against Moscow.