LUGANSK, June 9. /TASS/. Two HIMARS rockets fired by Ukrainian troops were shot down in the skies over Lugansk, Ivan Filiponenko, an officer of the 2nd army corps of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), said on Friday.

"At about 6:45 p.m. on June 9, an explosion was heard in the sky over Lugansk; local residents could see a large cloud of smoke. The air defense system, according to preliminary data, hit and destroyed two HIMARS rockets, their fragments scattered around the Kosior neighborhood and the Southern district," he said in a video address posted on the Syny Otechestva (Fatherland’s Sons) Telegram channel.

According to Filiponenko, an investigation is underway to find out where the rockets were fired from.

"We were mowing grass in the evening when we heard an explosion. Looked up to see a cloud. And then fragments began to fall down - quite violently, all around," city resident Marina said in the video.

Earlier in the day, a retired colonel of the LPR People’s Militia, Andrey Marochko, told TASS that Ukrainian troops had attempted to carry out a rocket strike at Lugansk’s administrative quarters but the rocket was downed by the air defense system.