Russia destroys 2,037 Ukrainian military facilities: Russian Defense Ministry

Europe, News March 6, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Russian armed forces destroyed a total of 2,037 Ukrainian military facilities during the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov said on March 5 that Russian forces have destroyed some 66 aircraft on the ground, 16 aircraft in the air, about 708 tanks, and other armored combat vehicles, 261 field artillery and mortars, 505 units of special military vehicles, 74 multiple rocket launchers, as well as 56 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

“Overall, some 2,037 Ukraine’s military infrastructure facilities were hit during the operation. They included 71 command posts and communication centers of the Kyiv forces; S-300, Buk, and 9K33 Osa missile systems as well as 61 radar stations,” Konashenkov said in a statement.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian Aerospace Forces used its “Orion” (Inokhodets) drone to destroy Ukraine’s Aidar nationalist battalion command and observation post in Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The Russian forces also published a video showing the drone targeting the Ukrainian Aidar battalion command post with a guided missile strike.

*^{Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov. (Image Credit: Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS)}*

Earlier on February 25, Russia’s defense ministry also issued a statement on Russian military operation in Ukraine and provided details of Russian strikes on Ukrainian military infrastructures, naval bases, radar stations, and missile systems.

Russian Defense Ministry also stressed that Russian forces are not targeting Ukrainian cities, and strikes are limited to incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. “There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population,” the ministry said in a statement.

However, Konashenkov made an official statement on March 3 saying that Russia will not consider foreign mercenaries – that are attacking Russian forces and military supply convoys – as prisoners of war and detained fighters will be brought to justice on criminal charges.

Konashenkov said in a statement: “None of the mercenaries the West is sending to Ukraine to fight for the nationalist regime in Kyiv can be considered as combatants in accordance with international humanitarian law or enjoy the status of prisoners of war. At best, they can expect to be prosecuted as criminals. We are urging all foreign citizens who may have plans to go and fight for Kyiv’s nationalist regime to think a dozen times before getting on the way.”

While Ukraine’s army claimed that more than 9,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the fighting but Moscow said that 498 of its troops have died and 1,597 have been wounded.

Separately, Russian National Defense Command Center chief Mikhail Mizintsev said on March 4 that “The regime in Kyiv has practically lost the ability to govern regional and district authorities.”

Mizintsev claimed that “Most cities and communities [in Ukraine] are in the hands of rampaging nationalist battalions, a so-called territorial defense. In fact, they are neo-Nazis, mercenaries, terrorists, and bandits, some of them foreign.”

Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on February 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy formed an “International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine” and lifted visas for volunteers who would help the Ukrainian army fight Russian forces.