On Saturday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the downing of a Ukrainian cargo plane carrying Western weapons and the destruction of a center for gathering foreign mercenaries.
“The Air Defense Forces shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane loaded with Western military equipment over the Odessa region,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted by the Russian Sputnik news agency as saying, during a media briefing today.
Konashenkov indicated that Russian aviation targeted a center for training Ukrainian forces on American howitzers in the Sumy region with high-precision missiles.
A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the Russian Air Force managed during the last day to destroy 35 command centers of the Ukrainian forces and 623 gathering points for personnel and equipment, and about 400 ultra-nationalists were killed.
Since February 24, the Russian Armed Forces have been carrying out a special military operation to protect the Donbass region, in southeastern Ukraine, according to the Russian agency.
Last March, the Russian Armed Forces completed the main tasks of the first phase of the special military operation in Ukraine; It significantly limited the capabilities and combat capabilities of the Ukrainian forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territory; He explained that Russia’s goal is to protect people who, for eight years, were subjected to persecution and genocide by the Kyiv regime, according to Sputnik.
