LIVE UPDATES - Russian air defenses down 10 HIMARS, Smerch rockets in Ukraine operation

©Russian Defence Ministry/TASS

Russian air defense forces intercepted ten rockets of the HIMARS and Smerch multiple launch rocket systems and destroyed seven Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Monday.

"In the past 24 hours, air defense capabilities intercepted ten rockets of the HIMARS and Smerch multiple launch rocket systems. In addition, they destroyed seven Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Aleksandrovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Naugolnoye and Staraya Krasnyanka in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.

Russian forces destroy 75 Ukrainian troops in Kupyansk area

Russian forces struck Ukrainian army units in the Kupyansk area, eliminating roughly 75 enemy troops over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the Kupyansk direction, aircraft and artillery of the western battlegroup struck the Ukrainian army units near the settlements of Sinkovka in the Kharkov Region and Artyomovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.

The strikes eliminated enemy manpower and equipment, the general said.

"The enemy lost as many as 75 Ukrainian personnel, two armored combat vehicles, two motor vehicles and a D-30 howitzer," Konashenkov reported.

Russian forces eliminate 50 Ukrainian troops in Krasny Liman area

Russian forces eliminated roughly 50 Ukrainian troops in the Krasny Liman area over the past day, he said.

"In the Krasny Liman direction, assault aircraft, artillery and units of the battlegroup Center inflicted damage on the Ukrainian army’s manpower and equipment near the settlement of Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People’s Republic in their active operations," the spokesman said.

Russian forces eliminated as many as 50 Ukrainian personnel, two armored combat vehicles, a pickup truck and a D-30 howitzer, the general specified.

Russian forces eliminate 285 Ukrainian troops in Donetsk advance

Russian forces eliminated about 285 Ukrainian troops and mercenaries in their advance in the Donetsk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the Donetsk direction, as many as 285 Ukrainian personnel and mercenaries, a tank, three infantry fighting vehicles, two armored personnel carriers, an armored combat vehicle, eight motor vehicles, two pickup trucks, a Grad multiple rocket launcher, four D-30 howitzers and also two ammunition depots were destroyed in the past 24 hours as a result of active operations by units of the southern battlegroup and artillery fire," the spokesman said.

Russian forces destroy 45 Ukrainian troops in southern Donetsk, Zaporozhye areas

Russian forces destroyed roughly 45 Ukrainian troops and a Polish-made Krab artillery gun in the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

In the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, aircraft and artillery of the battlegroup East inflicted damage on the Ukrainian army units near the settlements of Novomikhailovka and Ugledar in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the spokesman specified.

"The enemy’s total losses in those areas in the past 24 hours amounted to 45 Ukrainian personnel, two pickup trucks, a D-30 howitzer, and also a Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery gun," the general said.

Russian forces destroy ten Ukrainian troops, howitzer in Kherson area

Russian forces destroyed about 10 Ukrainian troops and an Akatsiya howitzer in the Kherson area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the Kherson direction, as many as ten Ukrainian personnel, two motor vehicles and also an Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer were destroyed as a result of damage inflicted on the enemy by firepower in the past 24 hours," the spokesman said.

Russian forces strike 79 Ukrainian artillery units in past day

Russian forces struck 79 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"During the last 24-hour period, operational/tactical aircraft, missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of forces struck 79 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, manpower and equipment in 98 areas," the spokesman said.

Russian forces destroy 405 Ukrainian combat aircraft in special military op In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 405 Ukrainian warplanes, 228 helicopters, 3,648 unmanned aerial vehicles, 415 surface-to-air missile systems, 8,521 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,078 multiple rocket launchers, 4,494 field artillery guns and mortars and 9,287 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov reported.

Special operation, 2 April. Main:

▪️United forces of the Russian Federation repelled a combined strike of multiple launch rocket systems of the Ukrainian troops in the South Donetsk direction, the head of the press center of the Vostok group told RIA Novosti;

▪️Russian military personnel destroyed up to 15 Ukrainian soldiers and the Akatsiya howitzer in the Kherson direction in a day, the Russian Defense Ministry said;

▪️The Russian military destroyed the command post and communications center of the Ukrainian 58th motorized infantry brigade in the DPR. The Russian military destroyed a Ukrainian artillery depot in the LPR;

▪️In the Kupyansk and Krasnoliman directions, Kyiv lost about 130 military personnel;

▪️Seven residents, including three children and a teenager, from the border village of the Kursk region were injured of varying severity as a result of a mortar attack from Ukraine, the governor of the Kursk region said;

▪️It is not supposed to place nuclear weapons in the Czech Republic, said the head of the Ministry of Defense of the republic, Yana Chernokhova, commenting on Putin's statement about the possible deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus;

▪️Vladlen Tatarsky, a military commander who worked in the special operation zone, died on Sunday in an explosion in a cafe in St. Petersburg.

Suspect in Tatarsky case admits she brought statuette bomb that killed war correspondent

Darya Trepova
©Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia

Darya Trepova, detained on suspicion of being involved in the murder of military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky, has confessed that she was the one who brought the statuette bomb that exploded inside the cafe, according to a video released by the Russian Interior Ministry's press center on Monday.

"I was the one who snuck in the statuette that exploded," she said.

Asked what she had been detained for, Trepova replied, "I was detained, I would say, for being at the scene of Vladlen Tatarsky's murder."

She refused to say who gave her the statuette.

"I'll talk about that later, if you don’t mind," Trepova said.

Video interview of a woman allegedly involved in the explosion in a cafe on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg

The cafe bombing occurred on April 2 during a meeting with military correspondent Maxim Fomin, known under the pen-name Vladlen Tatarsky. He died instantly. More than 30 people were injured. The blast’s yield is estimated at 200 grams of TNT. Investigative Committee detectives and forensic experts are examining the crime scene.

The criminal case has been transferred to the central office of the Investigative Committee. On Sunday evening law enforcement officers searched Trepova's home in St. Petersburg. Her mother and sister were interviewed. According to preliminary findings, it was Trepova who handed the figurine bomb to Tatarsky.

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that the terrorist act against Tatarsky had been masterminded by Ukraine’s special services and agents collaborating with Alexey Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation (recognized as an extremist organization in Russia). Trepova is a supporter of the foundation.

Tatarsky’s murder plotted by Ukrainian intel services, involved Navalny’s firm — officials

The terror attack on war reporter Vladlen Tatarsky [real name: Maxim Fomin] was plotted by Ukrainian special services, which in turn recruited agents from among individuals working with incarcerated blogger Alexey Navalny’s foundation (designated an extremist organization in Russia), the National Anti-Terrorism Committee told TASS on Monday.

"The investigation has established that the April 2 act of terror against prominent journalist Vladlen Tatarsky in St. Petersburg was plotted by Ukrainian special services and involved a number of people who cooperate with the so-called Anti-Corruption Foundation of [Alexey] Navalny, who was actively supported by detainee [Darya] Trepova," the Committee said in a statement.

The probe is ongoing, Russia’s anti-terrorism body said.

The motives behind Trepova’s crime are currently being established, Investigative Committee Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told reporters. Trepova has been detained; appropriate restraining measures are now being determined for her.

A blast ripped through a caf·, Street Food-Bar No. 1, on Universitetskaya Embankment in central St. Petersburg on April 2. One person, military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was hosting an event there, died on the spot, while over 30 people were injured. According to preliminary data, an explosive device with a yield of more than 200 grams of TNT went off near the stage. Investigators and forensic crime scene units are still working at the scene.

The resulting criminal case has been assigned to the Investigative Committee’s central office. On Sunday evening, law enforcement agents searched Trepova’s apartment in St. Petersburg, where her mother and her sister were interrogated. According to preliminary reports, it was Trepova who handed Tatarsky a statuette that appeared to have been stuffed with explosives.

Suspect in St. Petersburg cafe blast detained, Investigative Committee reports

Investigative Committee officers have detained Darya Trepova, the suspect in a St.Petersburg cafe blast that killed war reporter Vladlen Tatarsky on Sunday, the Committee told reporters on Monday.

"Russian Investigative Committee officers in cooperation with operatives detained Darya Trepova on suspicion of her being behind the St. Petersburg cafe blast," the Investigative Committee said.

©Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS

A blast occurred in Streetfood-Bar No 1 on Universitetskaya Embankment in central St. Petersburg on April 2. One person, war reporter Vladlen Tatarsky who held an event there, died on the spot, and over 30 people were injured. According to preliminary data, an explosive device with a yield of more than 200 grams of TNT went off near the stage. Investigators and crime scene units are still working on the scene.

On Sunday evening, law enforcement agents searched Trepova’s flat in St. Petersburg, where her mother and her sister were interrogated. According to preliminary reports, it was Trepova who handed Tatarsky a statuette stuffed with explosives. She was later wanted by the police.

Kremlin: War reporter Tatarsky's murder is act of terrorism, Putin was urgently informed

The murder of war reporter Vladlen Tatarsky is a terrorist act, Russian President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of the incident, Kremlin Sspokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

"This is a terrorist act, you and I have seen the National Antiterrorism Committee’s statement. Now there is an active phase of the investigation, we see quite energetic steps to detain suspects. Let's be patient in any case and wait for statements from our special services that are working there. There is evidence, judging by the National Antiterrorism Committee’s statement, that Ukrainian special services may be involved in the planning of this terrorist attack, and, of course, this is a terrorist attack," Peskov reiterated.

In reply to a clarifying question whether the president was aware, he assured: "Yesterday, he was immediately informed on the subject."

Peskov did not say whether Tatarsky might posthumously recieve a state award from the head of state. "I can't say anything about that yet. I do not have this information," the spokesman explained, noting that reporters would be informed after the data was clarified.

Peskov added that the Kremlin wished a speedy recovery to the victims of the explosion. "And, of course, our condolences to the family and friends of Fomin, who died as a result of this terrorist attack," he said.

The explosion in the cafe happened around 6 p.m. on April 2 during an event hosted by Tatarsky. The journalist was killed on the spot and more than 30 people were injured. According to preliminary data, an explosive device with a yield of more than 200 grams of TNT went off near the stage. Investigators are continuing to work at the scene. Criminal charges of murder by socially dangerous means (Part 2, Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code) have been filed.

The criminal case was transferred to the Investigative Committee’s central office. According to the National Antiterrorism Committee’s statement, the attack was planned by the Ukrainian special services, as well as agents collaborating with Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation FBK (recognized as a foreign agent NGO).

Baby Steps Toward Peace: What to Expect From Russia-Iran-Syria-Turkiye Meeting in Moscow

©Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin//Go to the mediabank

The past two months have witnessed dramatic changes in the Middle East’s security architecture, with February’s devastating earthquakes sparking an outpouring of diplomatic and humanitarian support for war-torn Syria and giving rise to hopes that the US-led 12-year-old dirty war against the country may finally be reaching its end.

The deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Syria, Iran and Turkiye are preparing to hold quadripartite talks in Moscow this week. The negotiations, expected to stretch out over two days, will be the first direct talks between Syrian and Turkish officials since December, when Moscow hosted the two countries’ defense and intelligence ministers – the first of their kind in more than a decade, to explore a possible normalization of ties.

Syrian media reported Sunday that Assistant Foreign Minister Dr. Ayman Sousan would be leading the Syrian delegation. Sousan told reporters that he and his Russian and Iranian colleagues would hold bilateral consultations on Monday, and that a quadripartite meeting with Turkiye would take place on Tuesday.

Damascus’ focus, he said, will be negotiating the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syrian territory, joint efforts to combat terrorism, and non-interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

Officials in Ankara confirmed last week that Turkiye would take part in the negotiations, with an anonymous senior official saying the talks would constitute “a continuation of the ministerial-level meetings that began during the normalization process.” No “significant decisions” are expected, according to the official, given that there will be “no ministerial-level participation” at these particular negotiations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian confirmed Iranian participation in the talks during a press conference alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week, and said the “rapprochement of the views of Turkiye and Syria” will be their focus.

“Tehran and Moscow will also make efforts to bring these views closer together. And if some framework is determined at these negotiations, the next meeting can be held at the level of foreign ministers,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

Iran joined the Russian-led diplomatic normalization process in January, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying it was “absolutely logical” for Tehran to take part, since Moscow, Tehran and Ankara are all members of the Astana Process on Syrian peace.

Regional Realignment

Russia, which enjoys friendly relations with both Syria and Turkiye, has spent months seeking to bring Damascus and Ankara closer to normalization after more than a decade of mutual animosity.

“We believe that the differences between Damascus and Ankara can be overcome, and will continue to assist the parties in finding mutually acceptable solutions in the interest of normalizing interstate relations between them and restoring traditional Syrian-Turkish good neighborliness,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Sputnik back in February.

The diplomat expressed confidence that Turkish forces in Syria – the key bone of contention between Damascus and Ankara, can be resolved, since the Turkish side has reaffirmed at the highest levels “its commitment to the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic.” This position is “recorded in a number of Russian-Turkish documents and joint statements of the Astana Troika,” Bogdanov pointed out.

Russia’s commitment to restoring Syrian-Turkish ties was spelled out in a new foreign policy concept last week. The document, signed into law by President Putin on Friday, formally outlines Moscow’s commitment to “reconciling differences relations” between Syria and its neighbors, and in “helping resolve and overcome consequences of armed conflicts” in the Middle East in general.

Russia, the policy says, will focus, going forward, on “developing the full-scale cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran, providing comprehensive support for the Syrian Arab Republic, and deepening the multifaceted mutually beneficial partnerships” with Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Organization of Islamic Cooperation members.

The restoration of Syrian-Turkish ties is key to this equation. When the CIA-led dirty war in Syria began in the early 2010s, Turkiye and other countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Israel joined the attempt to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, facilitating the flow of Islamist militants into the country, and the export of oil, ancient artifacts and other wealth out of it.

Russia’s intervention in the conflict in 2015 helped slow these flows to a trickle, and Turkiye subsequently shifted gears to supporting rebels in Idlib province, and carrying out multiple military operations in Syria against Daesh (ISIS)* and US-backed Syrian Kurdish militants with suspected ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – which Ankara designates as a terrorist group.

Turkiye and its allies currently control about 10 percent of Syria’s territory, and Damascus has repeatedly demanded their withdrawal (a demand Syrian authorities have also applied to US and Israeli forces). Emphasizing the significance of the issue to Damascus, President Assad said last month that he would not agree to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan until Ankara agreed to end its occupation.

“This is linked to arriving at a stage where Turkiye would clearly be ready and without any ambiguity to exit completely from Syrian territory and end its support of terrorism and restore the situation that prevailed before the start of the war on Syria,” Assad told a Sputnik reporter in mid-March after a meeting with President Putin.

Wake Up Call for Washington

Last month, China brokered a landmark normalization of relations agreement between long-time regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, with the US left sidelined from the negotiations and meeting the news with sour grapes.

Meanwhile, Saudi and Syrian officials recently told US media that the two countries were nearing a Russia-brokered normalization of ties agreement. Syrian and Egyptian officials are also in “advanced discussions” on the full restoration of diplomatic relations, with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad traveling to Cairo for talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, on Saturday.

In February and March, President Assad traveled to Oman and the United Arab Emirates – which became the first Gulf nations to take steps to restore ties with Damascus in 2019 and 2020, respectively, to discuss ways to boost ties and facilitate Syria’s return to the Arab League.

The normalization of Syrian-Turkish ties, as a key component of Syria's triumphant diplomatic 'return' to the region, could prove a devastating blow to US power, demonstrating that Washington’s dirty war tactics, and longstanding attempts to sanction Damascus into submission, are no longer a convincing argument to regional powers – even those with a long-standing tradition of close links to Washington. It will also prove a boon to President Assad, demonstrating his ability to withstand a dirty war against his country by some of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on Earth and live to tell about it.

Switzerland to Investigate Buyout of Credit Suisse by Main Rival UBS

©AFP 2023/FABRICE COFFRINI

With reverberations from the ongoing banking crisis continuing to be felt across the Western financial system, Swiss officials say they need to double-check the paperwork as their country’s biggest bank attempts a takeover of its struggling rival.

Switzerland has opened an investigation into the takeover of the beleaguered Credit Suisse bank by its rival UBS Group, authorities announced Sunday.

The nation’s Federal Prosecutor said in a statement that the office is looking into whether executives at either Credit Suisse and UBS committed crimes, but didn’t elaborate about the direction of the investigation.

"The Office of the Attorney General wants to proactively fulfill its mandate and responsibility to contribute to a clean Swiss financial center and has set up a monitoring system so that it can take action immediately on any issues that fall within its area of responsibility," the prosecutor's office stated.

The central bank said that if the investigation turned up any serious irregularities, investors' deposits would be guaranteed.

UBS, which reappointed former CEO Sergio Ermotti ahead of the mergers, reportedly insists that its "number one priority is to stabilize the situation".

The chairman of the board of directors of the new super-bank described the merger as not only "the biggest transaction" since the 2008 financial crisis, but "the first time" that banks of global significance will combine forces.

Credit Suisse agreed to a merger with UBS in March just one week after getting a $54 billion bailout by the Swiss government which failed to stem a massive drop in share prices – a bailout which indicated that the bank had been deemed "too big to fail." Though it’d been on a steady slide for years, Credit Suisse’s shares have plummeted in value by four times in as many months since December.

With the walls closing in, the embattled company’s investors decided in March to be absorbed by their rival UBS for $3.25 billion in a government-supervised deal.

UBS, the country’s largest bank, has declared that it could end up laying off up to 30% of its workforce in the wake of the buyout. In a worst-case scenario, that could mean that as many as 36,000 people lose their jobs.

Russia’s flag hoisted over Artyomovsk, city technically captured — Wagner PMC founder

A Wagner Group soldier guards an area in the city of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut).
©Valentin Sprinchak/TASS, archive

Russia’s flag has been hoisted over Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine) city hall, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military company, said on Monday.

"April 2, 23:00 precisely. Behind me is the building of (Artyomovsk’s) city administration. This Russian flag is for Vladlen Tatarsky, (the Russian military reporter killed in a blast in St. Petersburg on Sunday). ‘In grateful memory,’ is written on this flag. Technically we have captured Bakhmut," he said as quoted by the Telegram channel of his press service.

Prigozhin noted that the commanders of Russian units that captured the city hall and the entire central district "will carry and place the flags." "The adversary remains in Western blocks," he added.

The head of the Russian private military company (PMC), Evgeny Prigozhin, has announced a milestone achievement in the battle for the city of Artryomovsk (known in Ukraine as Bakhmut), publishing a video allegedly taken in front of the town’s administrative building on Sunday evening.

“We hoisted the Russian flag with the inscription ‘Good memory to Vladlen Tatarsky’ and the flag of PMC Wagner on top of the city administration of Bakhmut,” Prigozhin said in the clip.

Prigozhin’s announcement comes just hours after prominent Russian military blogger Tatarsky (real name Maksim Fomin) was killed in an apparent improvised explosive device blast in a café in Saint Petersburg on Sunday afternoon.

“Legally speaking, Bakhmut is taken. The enemy is concentrated in the western districts,” the head of the PMC added.

The battle for Artyomovsk/Bakhmut has emerged as one of the most intensive and bloody engagements of the armed conflict in Ukraine, with both sides reportedly suffering significant casualties. Western officials have claimed that the city poses no strategic military value, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky pledged to defend it as long as possible after proclaiming the city a fortress.

Kiev’s attempts to cling onto Bakhmut, regardless of the losses, has “almost destroyed the Ukrainian army,” Prigozhin claimed earlier this week. However, Wagner fighters, who led the charge to capture the Donetsk People’s Republic city, also took “a serious beating,” he acknowledged.

The Donbass fighter-turned-war correspondent was killed in an explosion at a St. Petersburg café on Sunday. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal investigation into the incident. Who was Vladlen Tatarsky? Here’s what we know.

In the spring of 2014, Ukrainian forces launched a full-blown offensive into the Donbass in an attempt to crush a nascent pro-independence rebellion by local residents and militias. By the summer, fighting approached right up to the prison where Fomin was doing his time, with shells, mortar rounds and bullets hitting the detention center and killing and wounding several inmates. Fomin managed to escape in the chaos, and soon joined up with militiamen fighting off Ukrainian forces.

Between late 2014 to 2019, Fomin served in several Donbass militia units, including the Vityaz Regiment, the LPR’s Fourth Brigade, and the Vostok Battalion. Fomin was briefly arrested by militiamen in 2014 after they learned of his criminal record, but received a pardon from late DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko in recognition of his service.

Fomin began covering events in the Donbass as a journalist in 2019 after retiring from military service.

His audience on social media ballooned after February 2022 with his front line coverage of Russia’s military operation, where he combined his job as a correspondent with service as a military drone operator. Fomin's videos spread like wildfire across the internet, reaching not only Russian-language users, but foreigners as well.

Fomin received popularity – and occasional notoriety, for his brusque and to-the-point reporting style, and for his no-holds barred critical coverage, including discussion of some of the problems faced by Russian forces in the conflict.

‘Big Loss’

Boris Rozhin, a military expert with the Center for Military-Political Journalism, called Fomin's death a "big loss," saying his reports constituted an honest appraisal of the real situation on the front. "He did not hesitate to reveal the problematic points which needed to be fixed. And in some areas, progress really began to be made after that."

Russian lawmaker and Russian Liberal Democratic Party fraction chief Leonid Slutsky said that while he would trust investigators in the case to figure out what happen there is every reason to talk about a “Ukrainian trace” in the attack on Fomin, “as in the case of the murder of Daria Dugina."

"It has the same handwriting. This crime was committed by those who hate Russia, who are ready to kill Russian patriots,” Slutsky wrote in his Telegram page on Sunday evening.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out that Russian journalists are under constant threat of reprisal attacks by the Kiev regime and its patrons.

“They are subjected to harassment, branded in the literal sense with special markings on digital platforms on American internet companies, and face a ‘witch hunt’ in the Western media,” she said.

“Not a single case of the violent death of a Russian journalist, assessed by the Kiev regime and its thugs as a ‘success’ has been investigated, or even treated with elementary human sympathy by Western countries, international organizations or foreign professional communities.”

Zakharova blasted Kiev’s “undisguised delight” in the wake Fomin's death and said the lack of reaction in the White House, Downing Street and Elysee Palace “speaks for itself” in light of the lip service they typically pay to the "well-being of journalists and freedom of journalism."

Ukrainian rockets strike repelled in southern Donetsk direction — defense ministry

Russia’s battlegroup East has repelled Ukraine’s strikes from multiple rocket launch systems in the southern Donetsk direction, the battlegroup’s spokesman Alexander Gordeyev said on Sunday.

"Combined rocket strikes with two HIMARS and three Smerch rockets were repelled in the southern Donetsk direction. Russian S-300 and Buk air defense systems hit all the targets. Osa-AKM and Strela-10 air defense systems downed two Valkyrie and two Fury drones," he said, adding that a Leleka drone was downed from small arms in the Zaporozhye direction.

According to Gordeyev, an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group to penetrate into the rear of Russian forces in the Zaporozhye direction was thwarted. Five militants were killed. "An enemy howitzer was spotted and destroyed by a Russian Msta self-propelled system near the settlement of Zaliznichnoye in the course of counterbattery activity," he added.

"In the south Donetsk direction, combined missile strikes involving two rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system [MLRS] and three projectiles of the Smerch MLRS were repelled. The crews of the S-300 and Buk anti-aircraft missile systems destroyed all targets," the spokesperson said.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian forces have also shot down three Ukrainian drones.

In the south Donetsk direction, Russian troops have thwarted "two attempts by the enemy to carry out reconnaissance by force," "a reconnaissance group was destroyed, and up to 20 militants were eliminated," the defense ministry spokesperson told.

In addition, in the Zaporozhye direction, an attempt by Ukrainian forces to send a sabotage and reconnaissance group to the rear of Russian troops was thwarted and five militants were killed, the spokesperson said.

Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, after the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. In response to Russia’s operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow and have been supplying weapons to Ukraine.

On September 30, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, signed agreements on the accession of these territories to Russia, following referendums that showed that an overwhelming majority of the local population supported becoming part of Russia.

Western countries have significantly increased their economic and military support for Kiev, which now includes air defense and multiple rocket launching systems, tanks, self-propelled artillery, anti-aircraft guns, armored vehicles and various types of ammunition. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in January that arms supplies to Ukraine by Western countries testify to their direct and growing involvement in the conflict.