RUSSIAN forces have destroyed 183 Ukrainian combat aircraft, 1,064 unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), and 128 helicopters since the beginning of their special military operation in Ukraine, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.
In addition, 325 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,323 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 451 installations of multiple launch rocket systems, 1,731 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 3,294 units of special military vehicles were destroyed.
Russian air defence systems also shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack plane near the settlement of Novogrigorovka in the Dnepropetrovsk Region,’ he said.
And Russian air defence forces intercepted a Ukrainian shell of the Smerch multiple launch rocket system in the area of the community of Malaya Kamyshevakha in the Kharkov Region, the general added.
They also wiped out a large Ukrainian army arms arsenal in industrial premises in Krivoi Rog.
Konashenkov said: ‘Long-range precision missiles of the Russian Aerospace Forces eliminated a large arms arsenal of the Ukrainian military in warehouses of one of the enterprises in Krivoi Rog in the Dnepropetrovsk Region.’
Russian missile and artillery troops have also eliminated 62 Ukrainian army command posts.
Konashenkov said they’d struck the 62 command posts, 596 areas of amassed manpower and military hardware, and also 52 positions of artillery and mortar units of Ukrainian nationalists.
‘Operational-tactical and army aviation aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles hit two command posts, and also 53 areas of amassed Ukrainian manpower and military equipment,’ the general said.
The air strikes eliminated over 300 nationalists and up to 50 pieces of military and special hardware.
In the past 24 hours, Russian forces, striking with precision missiles have knocked out three Ukrainian command posts, two artillery batteries, an Osa-AKM anti-aircraft missile system, two artillery batteries, a radar and five ammunition depots, Konashenkov said.
The Ukrainian Osa-AKM anti-aircraft missile system which was hit, was near the settlement of Nikolayevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the radar station for detecting and tracking aerial targets was in the area of the community of Boguslavka in the Kharkov Region, five ammunition depots were near Krasnogorovka and Pokrovskoye in the DPR, Severodonetsk in the Lugansk People’s Republic and Bezrukov in the Kharkov Region, the general said.
- Russia’s latest Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) will carry high-yield hypersonic warheads and boost glide vehicles, Head of the Defence Ministry’s 4th Central R&D Institute, Dmitry Knyazev, said speaking on the Military Output Acceptance programme on the Zvezda TV Channel on Sunday.
‘The payload on the Sarmat missile system covers a broad range of warheads,’ he said.
‘They include completely different options as compared to the Voyevoda missile system. In particular, the Sarmat will carry large-yield warheads and hypersonic boost glide vehicles.’
Russia test-launched the Sarmat ICBM from the Plesetsk spaceport in the northern Arkhangelsk Region for the first time on April 20th.
Work is also underway at the Uzhur missile formation in the Krasnoyarsk Region in Eastern Siberia to rearm its forward regiment with Sarmat ICBMs.
The Sarmat’s warhead range has been expanded, in particular, in terms of the number of warheads and their types, including boost glide vehicles, which has been achieved thanks to the missile’s energy and mass characteristics.
The Sarmat ICBM has been developed at the Makeyev State Rocket Centre (part of Roscosmos) and is manufactured at the Krasmash enterprise.
In experts’ estimates, the RS-28 Sarmat is capable of delivering a MIRVed warhead weighing up to 10 tons to any location worldwide both over the North and South Poles.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic have held telephone discussions about the situation in Ukraine and developments around Kosovo, the Kremlin’s press office reported on Sunday.
The statement said that both presidents had reaffirmed ‘their mutual determination to consistently bolster Russia-Serbia strategic partnership based on traditional ties of the peoples of the two countries.
‘Putin and Vucic agreed that Moscow would continue uninterrupted natural gas supplies to Serbia.’
The Kremlin’s press office continued: ‘The sides discussed substantively the essential agenda of bilateral relations, including steps to expand mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation.
‘The sides agreed, in particular, that Russia would continue uninterrupted natural gas supplies to Serbia.’
Serbian leader Vucic had earlier highlighted that three factors are important for Belgrade: natural gas supply amounts, the price, and reliable deliveries.
Vucic said he hoped that after his talk with Putin, Serbia ‘will get an honest price’ of Russian natural gas supplies in the required amounts.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry has shown footage of an army aviation special operation escorting and providing air cover for a train which was transporting important supplies to the special operation zone.
It was covered from the air by Mi-8 helicopters of the military aviation of the Central Military District.
Pilots fly air patrol routes every day. They carry out group flights at low and extremely low altitudes and practice manoeuvres to avoid enemy fire.
From the ground, cover is provided by the crews of the Pantsir-S complexes.
‘Today, a railway convoy was accompanied by a pair of Mi-8 helicopters. We escorted it to its destination. There were no incidents along the route,’ the Defence Ministry said.
Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Centre for Defence Control of Russia has also reported that the Russian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Emergency Situations are demining and actively clearing the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) of explosive objects.
The colonel-general said 352 explosive items had been defused over the past 24 hours.
Earlier, information was received from the DPR about the demining of the waters off Mariupol. The port is now being restored.
From May 25 to May 30, the Russian Emergencies Ministry delivered more than 1,300 tons of humanitarian aid to the Donbass and Ukraine.
‘The cargo includes bottled water, food, medicines and essentials,’ the RIA Novosti press service reported.
And air defence systems are now actively working over Donetsk.
The Ukrainian military intensified night shelling – more than 100 shells from Grad multiple launch rocket systems were fired by the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the residential areas of Donetsk and Gorlovka. This is reported by the People’s Militia of the DPR.
The day before, two people were killed and five more were injured as a result of strikes on Makiivka. A residential building was destroyed by a direct hit, the neighbouring ones were seriously damaged; glass was broken, the roof was destroyed.
Part of the ammunition was detonated in the area of residential high-rise buildings. According to local residents, there have never been such massive attacks on the city.
‘Everything was heard. Both the earth and the windows shook!’ said an eyewitness.
Residents of the liberated areas of Severodonetsk, when meeting with the Russian military and fighters of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), said that they were waiting for them.
Near the entrance of an apartment building civilians were standing. Aleksey came out of the basement when Russian and Lugansk servicemen liberated the house from neo-Nazis.
According to him, Ukrainian shelling is still ongoing. ‘They get on video – shells hit houses. When the nationalists were in a residential area, people were used as human shields.’
He said that three shells hit the house, and five on the ground next to it.
Residents have been living in basements since the beginning of hostilities, more than a hundred days ago. A woman named Raisa and her husband are still afraid to go outside, and have only a small fire to cook on in the basement.
‘People had to drink rain water. Humanitarian aid was delivered by soldiers of the people’s militia of the LPR.
‘We survived. The guys are here and fixing everything. We do not have a single pane of glass left, neither in the house nor in the rooms. Everything will be fine. Our garage burned down,’ the pensioner says.
‘The enemy (the Ukrainian Army) strikes at those areas where he probably knows that there are civilians. This does not stop the enemy,’ said the official representative of the people’s militia of the LPR, Ivan Filiponenko.