Struck several Ukrainian military targets: Russian Defence ministry

Moscow: The Russian Armed Forces struck military industry enterprises and fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine, especially in and around region, using long-range precision weapons from air, land, and sea, as well as strike drones, the Russian Defence Ministry said Thursday.

The Russian forces also targeted military airfield infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions, local media reported.

Russia’s air defence systems shot down 11 aerial bombs and 631 Ukrainian Armed Forces aircraft in the past 24 hours, Russia’s state-owned Tass media reported.

According to the Ministry of Defence, Russian troops struck launch sites for Ukrainian long-range drones, as well as temporary deployment sites for Ukrainian Armed Forces units and foreign mercenaries in 153 districts in the last 24 hours.

“Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces, and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces’ troop groups struck transport infrastructure facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, launch sites for long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, and temporary deployment sites for Ukrainian armed forces and foreign mercenaries in 153 districts,” the ministry said.

According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, the military targets in Ukraine, which the Russian Armed Forces attacked overnight, were used by the Kyiv regime to kill civilians, local media reported.

“Even Klitschko was able to articulate it clearly this time: ‘It was a terrible night for Kyiv. The largest attack ever.’ I can only add one thing: not against peaceful Kyiv, but against the military-strategic targets used by the Kyiv regime to kill civilians,” the Russian diplomat wrote on her Telegram channel.

According to Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, the Russian Armed Forces’ massive retaliatory strike targeted exclusively military and paramilitary targets in Ukraine.

The Kremlin spokesman reported that Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, reported on Thursday morning to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the results of the Russian Armed Forces’ massive retaliatory strike against targets in Kyiv and other populated areas.

“In the context of strikes, of course, exclusively against military or near-military targets,” Peskov noted.

IANS