The report comes after Kiev fired US-supplied missiles at Russia’s Crimean peninsula, killing four civilians and injuring more than 150
The Russian military has destroyed a large logistics hub used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to store and redistribute weapons, including missiles delivered to Kiev by the West, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.
The report comes after Ukraine launched a missile barrage on Russia’s Crimean peninsula on Sunday, which involved five US-supplied ATACMS equipped with controversial cluster munition warheads. While most of the missiles were shot down by Russian air defenses, one ended up exploding in the air over the city of Sevastopol, leading to multiple civilian casualties. The attack is estimated to have killed at least four people, including two children, and injured more than 150, according to local authorities.
In its regular update on the Ukraine conflict, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that its forces, using unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles, artillery, and tactical aviation, had conducted a strike on a “large logistics center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” This was being used for the “accumulation, storage and redistribution of weapons, including missiles delivered to the Kiev regime by Western countries.”
The report also claimed that, over the past 24 hours, Russian air defense systems had destroyed 176 Ukrainian drones, six US-made ATACMS missiles, four Patriot missiles, and ten HIMARS and Czech-made Vampire rockets
On Sunday, the ministry also reported that Russian forces had conducted a series of long-range attacks against targets across Ukraine using high-precision, long-range sea-based weapons. All of the missiles hit their designated targets, including a training center for Ukrainian pilots, the report said.
Meanwhile, Moscow has condemned the continued delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine and accused the US of waging a “hybrid war” against Russia, effectively becoming a party to the Ukrainе conflict.
Following Sunday’s attack on Sevastopol, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, to present her with a demarche for the attack on Sunday. It described the attack as “a new bloody crime of the Kiev regime patronized and armed by Washington.” The ministry warned that Washington’s encouragement of the Ukrainian authorities to prolong hostilities by striking deep inside Russian territory “will not go unpunished.”
Previously, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested that Russia may consider supplying its own long-range weapons to countries and regions where they could be used to attack countries that provide Ukraine with military support.
