Driver of the 30-tonne launcher caused panic on the sidewalk, as he lost control of the vehicle after a rehearsal of the Independence Day parade.

Eyewitness videos from Saturday night show a group of curious onlookers filming a column of moving artillery as it drives through the heart of the Ukrainian capital.

As one of the vehicles attempts to change direction at a crossing, it takes too big a turning circle and slams at cruising speed into the wall of the Astarta business center, as screams ring out and the crowd scatters.

“Well, there is your parade for you!” wrote one eyewitness, ‘Vlad Vash’, on Facebook, along with a series of photos and videos. “First a tank nearly mowed me down, but stopped just in time. Then the very next vehicle drove into a wall.”

There were no casualties, but a towing truck had to extract the Buk from its resting place, where it had left a distinct wall imprint.

The Buk, a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile, was one of the mainstays of the Soviet military, and has been adopted and upgraded by both Russian and Ukrainian forces in the aftermath of the break-up of the USSR.

On August 24, it was to join in a military parade involving 4,000 personnel and what had been announced as world-leading Ukrainian military inventions.