The Russian Defense Ministry says 12 major strikes targeting military infrastructure have taken place in the past week
FILE PHOTO: A Kalibr cruise missile being fired from a Russian warship. © Sputnik / Russia’s Defense Ministry
Some of Ukraine’s Western-supplied cruise missiles and depleted-uranium shells have been destroyed in a series of strikes, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
Since last Sunday, Russian forces carried out 12 group attacks against various Ukrainian targets, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The targets included Ukrainian aircraft and armored vehicles repair facilities, oil refineries, depots of ammunition and foreign-made arms, training centers for Ukrainian saboteurs, and accommodation occupied by foreign mercenaries, the statement read.
According to the ministry, high-precision, long-range ground- and air-based missiles and drones were deployed during the strikes.
“As a result of the attacks, significant damage was delivered to the logistics system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, operating in the Kherson and Zaporozhye directions,” the statement read.
“Part of the stocks of cruise missiles and depleted uranium shells” provided to Kiev by its Western backers were destroyed, it said. Foreign-made multiple rocket launchers and air-defense systems were also hit, the ministry added.
Ukraine received Storm Shadow/SCALP-Eg long-range, air-launched cruise missiles from the UK and France earlier this year. The munitions have been used by Kiev to attack Russian targets, including those in Crimea.
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According to Sky News, Storm Shadows were deployed in the Ukrainian strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the city of Sevastopol on Friday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said five incoming missiles had been brought down by air defenses, but the resulting debris damaged the building and caused a blaze. One soldier was reported missing after the attack.
Britain has been supplying Ukraine with depleted-uranium shells since March. The controversial munitions are intended to be used by the Challenger 2 tanks that London donated to Kiev. The US announced that its Abrams M1 tanks, which President Joe Biden said would begin arriving in Ukraine “next week,” would also be armed with depleted-uranium shells.
The delivery of depleted uranium shells by the West to Kiev is “is very bad news,” Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stressed a few weeks ago. The use of such munitions during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 led to a “galloping” rise in the number of people suffering from cancer and other diseases, he said, adding that the same should now be expected in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the Russian Defense Ministry already reported a successful strike on a Ukrainian warehouse hosting depleted uranium shells.
READ MORE: IAEA sees no problem with depleted uranium weaponry – Grossi
Russia has repeatedly warned that deliveries of weapons to Ukraine by the US, UK and their allies will only prolong the fighting, but will not prevent Moscow from achieving the goals of its military operation. Russian officials also argue that the provision of arms, intelligence-sharing and the training of Kiev’s troops already means that Western nations have de facto become parties to the conflict.
