The Humvee (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) is an armored military vehicle designed for various tasks such as troop transport, command and control, and combat support. It is made of heavy-duty materials that can withstand severe conditions and attacks.
Russian Forces have seized as a trophy an American Humvee armored vehicle in Artemovsk (Bakhmut), after the Ukrainian Armed Forces abandoned it while retreating to the western quarters of the city.
The Ukrainian security forces attempted to destroy the abandoned Humvee with artillery, and as a result, it sustained minor damage.
The Humvee's wheels were damaged by shrapnel, but because the tires have special rubber inserts inside, this allowed the trophy to be successfully evacuated.
Possibility of Ukrainian Counteroffensive in Coming Days Persists - Zaporozhye Official
The possibility of Ukrainian troops launching a major counteroffensive in the Zaporozhye Region in the next few days persists, which justifies the evacuation of residents of nearby villages and towns, Vladimir Rogov, a senior official of the Zaporozhye regional administration, told Sputnik on Sunday.
"There were assumptions that the counteroffensive in the Zaporozhye Region might start on May 5 or 6, but this did not happen. However, a high probability of the counteroffensive being launched in the upcoming days still persists. Both our troops and the enemy are ready to intensify military actions," Rogov said.
On Thursday, Rogov said that Kiev had accumulated its forces at the forefront to launch the counteroffensive. On Friday, Yevgeny Balitsky, the acting governor of the Zaporozhye Region, stated that Ukraine might start its counteroffensive in the coming days or even hours. Residents of 18 villages located near the front line have been evacuated for safety reasons deeper into the region, Balitsky added.
Ukraine's upcoming counteroffensive is expected to be accompanied by the shelling of nearby villages, so the authorities' decision to temporary relocate the residents is justified, the official explained to Sputnik. Once Ukrainian troops are pushed back, the people will be able to return to home.
The Ukrainian government has been planning a major counteroffensive against Russia for several months. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in early April that Kiev had scheduled its counteroffensive for the summer, while US media reported that it was expected to start on April 30. The Foreign Policy newspaper reported, citing Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandra Ustinova, that Kiev indeed had hoped to launch its counteroffensive in April, but later postponed it indefinitely due to a shortage of weapons.
Russian Drone Lancet Destroys US' Avenger in Special Operation Zone - Defense Ministry
Russian kamikaze drone Lancet has destroyed US air defense system Avenger intended for the protection from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the special operation zone, the press office of the Vostok battalion said on Sunday.
"The 'Lancet' loitering munition has destroyed the Avenger air defense system based on the Hummer car near the city of Vodianoe," the office said.
Earlier this month, an informed source told Sputnik that Russian loitering munition Izdeliye-52 (Lancet) had been modernized based on the experience of using it during the special military operation in Ukraine.
The basic version of the drone has been significantly upgraded and now has a more powerful warhead, a new optoelectronic guidance system and a control system with new software.
Russia’s FSB thwarts Ukrainian drone attack on airfield in Ivanovo Region — statement
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Interior Ministry have thwarted a drone attack on an airfield in the Ivanovo Region, the FSB said in a statement.
"The FSB, acting together with the Russian Interior Ministry, thwarted an attempt to carry out an act of sabotage, masterminded by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, against the Severny airfield in the Ivanovo Region, which was supposed to involve drones filled with explosives," the statement reads.
The perpetrators planned to target A-50 early warning and control aircraft, the FSB added.
"In conducting active search measures in Russia, a sabotage group was exposed, which was supervised by Ukrainian security officers. The group’s members planned to use an Aeroprakt A-32 light aircraft to deliver improvised explosive devices from the Blistova settlement in Ukraine’s Chernigov Region," the statement added.
The aircraft’s pilot and the sabotage group’s members recruited by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry were detained after landing in Russia’s Tula Region during the handover of explosive devices. A search is underway for other members of the group.
Wagner promised ‘as much ammo as we need’ – Prigozhin
The Russian private military company Wagner Group, which is fighting Ukrainian troops in the Donbass city of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut), has been promised enough ammunition to continue the battle, the company's head, Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday.
The statement comes after Prigozhin warned that his fighters would be forced to pull out of the city on May 10 unless ammunition shortages are addressed by Russia’s Defense Ministry.
In a voice message posted on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin said that Wagner received “a military instruction … in which we were promised as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue our activities.”
“We were told that we can carry out activities in Artyomovsk as we deem necessary,” Prigozhin added.
He also said that Army General Sergey Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, was tasked with “making all decisions related to the military activities of Wagner PMC in coordination with the Defense Ministry.”
On Friday, Prigozhin said that Wagner personnel were suffering heavy losses because of what he described as a 70% shortage of ammunition. He later announced that the positions held by Wagner would be handed over to Akhmat, an elite unit from Russia’s Chechnya.
The fierce and bloody battle for the mining city of Artyomovsk, known to Ukrainians as Bakhmut, has been raging for several months. Prigozhin claims his forces have taken control of nearly all of the city, while the Ukrainians are holding out in a small area in the western part.
Capturing Artyomovsk, an important logistical hub, would allow Russian forces to make further advances in Donbass.
Sunday marks the 31st anniversary of the creation of the modern Russian military. What is its makeup and composition? What does the letter ‘Z’ painted on Russian vehicles in Ukraine mean? How does Russia’s military stack up against NATO? Read Sputnik’s explainer to find out.
On May 7, 1992, Russia's first president Boris Yeltsin issued an executive order establishing the Russian Armed Forces and assumed control as supreme commander.
Rough Start
Arguably no part of Russian society was impacted more adversely by the collapse of the USSR than the military. In December 1991, over 3.6 million active-duty generals, officers and conscripts who once pledged allegiance to the Soviet Union awoke to find themselves in 15 different countries.
“The Air Defense Troops in Estonia have been abandoned and forgotten about. Yeltsin made promises and then reneged on his own words. He has betrayed us,” one officer angrily said at a gathering of the All-Army Officers’ Meeting in Moscow in early 1992. “We’re surviving however we can.”
“It’s very difficult to speak about combat readiness today, since soldiers and officers aren’t rotated from combat duty for days on end, and there is no one to replace them for even one day. The Army cannot continue to remain in such condition. I for example am a Ukrainian by nationality, my wife is Russian, our four children were born in the Baltics, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. I would like to ask the president at this meeting: what country am I a citizen of today? And what country will I live in tomorrow together with my family?” another asked.
“[We’re told] by our media that nobody is threatening us and that we are living in new world of ‘common human thinking’, that these tendencies are victorious. But we see what happened to Iraq, which dared to act in a way that the United States didn’t want, what happened to Grenada, and to Panama and its duly elected president, who was extradited and stood trial. The Americans aren’t reducing their military presence in the Indian Ocean, in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Pacific Ocean, but our ships, speaking frankly, if the current trend continues, will be left laid up at harbors,” a concerned naval officer said.
The Russian military would spend the rest of the 1990s in its most difficult state since the turmoil that followed the 1917 revolutions, facing massive budget cutbacks, severe demoralization, the start of NATO's gradual encroachment toward Russia’s borders, and a series of conflicts across the post-Soviet zone.
It wouldn’t be until the appointment of Vladimir Putin as Yeltsin’s successor on December 31, 1999 (and his election as president in 2000) that the Russian military would begin to recover from the wounds, both figurative and literal, that it had received in the 1990s.
Today, the Russian Armed Forces rank among the top three military powers in the world, demonstrating over the past year that they are able to wage a proxy war with what is essentially the combined military and economic might of NATO in its entirety in Ukraine.
Sizing Up Russia's Armed Forces
Russia is in the process of expanding the size of its armed forces in connection with the crisis in Ukraine. In December, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that the military needed to enlarge from around one million troops to one-and-a-half million.
“In order to guarantee the fulfillment of tasks to ensure Russia’s security, it’s necessary to increase the strength of the Armed Forces to 1.5 million servicemen, including 695,000 contract servicemen,” Shoigu said.
In January, the defense chief held a meeting with his deputy defense ministers and commanders on the implementation of the directive, with the initiative to be completed between 2023 and 2026.
On May 2, Shoigu offered an update on the current state of the nation's rearmament program, revealing that the military is purchasing nearly triple the amount of weapons of certain types than it did in 2022, and seven times more of those in particularly high demand. The minister emphasized that the capabilities of the Armed Forces depend on the timely replenishment of weapons, meaning the military industrial complex must keep pace with the increase in demand.
“In general, the military industry is meeting the needs of the Army and Navy. However, it’s necessary to identify risks of enterprises failing their obligations and promptly take corrective measures in a timely manner,” he said.
The Makeup of Russia's Armed Forces
The Russian military consists of five service branches:
the Ground Forces;
the Aerospace Forces;
the Navy;
the Airborne Forces;
and the Strategic Rocket Forces
How Big are Russia's Ground Forces?
The Russian Ground Forces are by far the biggest branch, accounting for about 550,000 personnel in 2022. These consist of eight motorized rifle divisions, three tank divisions, one machine-gun-artillery division, and about 100 brigades ranging from motorized rifle and tank units to artillery, rocket artillery, control and communications, electronic warfare, air defense, engineering units, military police and the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops formations.
Troops are divided into Combined Arms Armies located in the Western, Southern, Central and Eastern Military Districts.
These forces have thousands of tanks (up to 2,800), infantry fighting vehicles (up to 5,100) and armored personnel carriers (up to 6,100), self-propelled and towed guns (over 1,750), rocket artillery (over 1,350) and surface-to-air missile systems (2,530+), and tens of thousands more tanks, IFVs, APCs, towed and self-propelled guns in storage. Part of these stocks has been tapped to shore up equipment engaged in Ukraine, with the military deploying a potpourri of equipment in the conflict zone, from various modifications of the T-72 tank to the T-80, and from Soviet-era BTR designs to the Tigr infantry vehicles introduced in the 2000s.
The Russian Aerospace Forces are, as the name suggests, the military branch responsible for assuring the security of Russia’s vast airspace, from the Arctic to the Black and Caspian Seas, and from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The size of the force was about 165,000 in 2020, and they are subdivided between the Air Force, the Air and Missile Defense Forces, and the Space Forces.
The main sub-branch, the Air Force, is equipped with a broad array of equipment, from fighter jets and fighter-bombers to heavy strategic bombers, transport and attack helicopters, transport planes, tankers and trainers. Among the best known aircraft are the Sukhoi-Su-34 twin-seat, all-weather fighter-bomber/strike aircraft, single-seat Sukhoi Su-35 air defense fighters, Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships, Tu-160 'White Swan' strategic bombers and Ilyushin Il-76 jumbo transport planes.
The air defense forces are equipped with an array of stationary and mobile radar, air and missile defense equipment, ranging from the stationary A-135 anti-ballistic missile system protecting Moscow from missile attack to road-mobile S-300 and S-400 missile systems. The Space Forces are equipped with tools to assist in space control, and the means to place satellites in orbit.
The Aerospace Forces have access to over 100 air bases from the exclave of Kaliningrad in the west to Sakhalin Island in the Far East, as well as several bases abroad, most notably the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria.
How Big is Russia's Navy?
The Russian Navy consists of about 150,000 personnel, divided into the Baltic, Northern, Black and Pacific Fleets, plus the Caspian Flotilla, the Naval Infantry and Naval Aviation. Headquartered in St. Petersburg, the Russian Navy is the third largest in the world after the United States and China, with its inventory including over 65 attack and missile submarines, 80 corvettes, 60 landing craft, 11 frigates, 10 destroyers, 2 cruisers and 1 aircraft carrier – the Admiral Kuznetsov.
Russia is one of only a handful of nations in the world with a so-called blue water navy – which means it can deploy naval assets across the globe in the world’s oceans (hence the term ‘blue’, rather than coastal, or ‘brown’ water). Other countries in the former category include the US, as well as France, Britain, China, Italy and India.
The collapse of the USSR forced Russia to significantly scale back its naval ambitions, with the Kuznetsov carrier just one of six sister ships built for the Soviet Navy, which found themselves in various hands after 1991, two of them having been sold to India and China and upgraded and modernized, and one turned into a floating theme park. The never-completed nuclear-powered Ulyanovsk would have allowed Russia to join the exclusive club of countries with supercarriers, but construction was halted in 1991, and scrapped in 1992.
Russia has made up for reduced tonnage with a number of asymmetrical solutions, including equipping multiple classes of warships – from small corvettes to stealthy attack subs, with the ability to launch nuclear-capable Kalibr cruise missiles. In 2015, corvettes from the Russian Caspian Flotilla showed off the Kalibr’s capabilities, firing dozens of missiles at terrorist targets in Syria, over 1,500 km away.
What Makes Russia's Airborne Forces and Strategic Rocket Forces Special?
The Russian Airborne Forces and the Strategic Rocket Forces are special branches of troops. The former consist of about 45,000 personnel, and as the name suggests, are tasked with airborne assault missions, although they can also join ground operations where particularly well-trained, battle-hardened troops are needed. Along with the Special Operations Forces, the Airborne Forces are considered among the most elite units of the Russian military. The Airborne troops are equipped with light armor, including infantry fighting vehicles and the 2S9 Nona, a specially-designed air-droppable self-propelled mortar.
The Strategic Rocket Forces carry perhaps the greatest burden on their shoulders among all of Russia’s military personnel – and are responsible for launching the nation’s nuclear weapons in the event of an enemy nuclear attack, or conventional aggression so severe that it threatens the existence of the state, to paraphrase the official nuclear doctrine. About 50,000 personnel serve in the Strategic Rocket Forces.
Russia is one of five countries in the world with a nuclear triad – meaning the ability to launch nukes from a silo, or mobile ground-based units, submarines or aircraft. The nuclear triad gives Russia an important psychological guarantee that in the event of an enemy's first strike - even if it’s a massed conventional cruise missile strike designed to decapitate the Russian leadership or neutralize its nukes – at least some of the warheads will get through.
The conflict in Ukraine has generated a lot of noise from Western officials and media about the possibility of Russia using tactical nukes in Ukraine. But unless and until Russia’s doctrine is changed to say otherwise, NATO – and specifically its leader – the US, will remain the only nuclear superpower whose doctrine allows for nukes to be used preemptively, and against non-nuclear armed adversaries.
Who Commands the Russian Armed Forces?
The Russian president is the constitutionally mandated supreme commander in chief of the Russian Armed Forces.
What Does the Letter ‘Z’ Mean on Russian Tanks?
The appearance of the letter ‘Z’ on Russian armored units during the escalation of tensions in the Donbass in early 2022 has no official military explanation. Most experts speculate that the markings, along with the more rarely observed letters ‘V’ and ‘O’, were painted on vehicles to allow Russian forces to avoid friendly fire, and possibly, to indicate the direction the equipment was supposed to travel –Z for Zapad, or ‘West’, V for Vostok, or ‘East’, or to distinguish between forces from the Western and Eastern military districts.
That leaves the mysterious ‘O’. The jury is still out on what that letter may mean.
In any event, the letter ‘Z’ has now become the symbol for the military operation in Ukraine as a whole, and used in flags, slapped on vehicles, caps, shirts and other items and even donned by some social media users to show their support for the troops.
Is Russia’s Military More Powerful Than NATO’s?
Military nerds on internet forums and social media have debated until they’re blue in the face about who would win a conflict between the Russian military and NATO, using arguments ranging from readiness levels to statistics on equipment and ammunition types to combat experience and the ability of economies and military industries to sustain a prolonged conflict. By nearly all military parameters, from total personnel, aircraft and warships, NATO has the edge. The alliance spends significantly more on defense – over $1 trillion in 2022 compared to about $86.4 billion by Moscow. The size of the alliance’s economies is also larger, with a GDP of $18.35 trillion dwarfing Russia’s 1.8 trillion. Of course, raw numbers aren’t everything, with the West’s failed sanctions war showing just how dramatic miscalculations about perceived strength can be, and historical conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan demonstrating that grit and determination can count for just as much as or even more than raw power.
Whatever the arguments about comparative military power may be, the figures above certainly serve to validate Russia’s concerns about NATO’s eastward creep over the past two-and-a-half decades. Hopefully, theories about ‘which side is stronger’ will never have to be put to the test, because the fate of billions of lives, and perhaps even humanity itself, may depend on peace between the nuclear superpowers.
Police arrested the leader of anti-monarchy group Republic and 51 others at King Charles's coronation on Saturday, saying their duty to prevent disruption outweighed the right to protest.
Hundreds of yellow-clad demonstrators gathered among the 10-deep crowds lining the procession route in central London to stand out from those clad in red, white and blue, and to hold up signs saying "Not My King".
Republic said its leader Graham Smith had been detained before the procession began and photos circulated on social media showing police officers seizing demonstrators' placards.
"We absolutely understand public concern following the arrests we made this morning," Commander Karen Findlay of the London Metropolitan police said in a statement.
"Over the past 24 hours there has been a significant police operation after we received information protesters were determined to disrupt the Coronation procession."
Republic had vowed to mount the biggest protest against a British monarch in modern history and protesters booed as King Charles and Queen Camilla made their way to Westminster Abbey, and as the service was relayed publicly on large speakers.
— Alliance of European Republican Movements (@AERMorg) May 6, 2023
"It is disgusting and massively over the top," said Kevin John, 57, a salesman from Devon who was among the protesters.
"It is also hugely counterproductive by the police because all it has done is create a massive amount of publicity for us. It is completely crazy."
Police did not confirm Smith's arrest. They said they had acted because they believed protesters would seek to deface public monuments with paint and disrupt "official movements".
"All of these people remain in custody," Findlay said.
Police said in a separate statement on Saturday that they had arrested three people earlier in the day based on intelligence that protesters were planning to throw rape alarms at the procession which could have scared the horses involved and thereby caused a risk to public safety.
Amongst the items seized during the arrests in London's Soho district were a number of rape alarms, the police added.
Police detain a protester on the day of Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla's coronation ceremony, in London, Britain May 6, 2023. REUTERS/Andrew Boyers
Protests also took place in Glasgow in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales, with participants holding up signs saying: "Abolish the monarchy, feed the people." On social media, many contrasted Britain's cost of living crisis with the pomp and pageantry.
Although protesters were in a minority compared with the tens of thousands gathered to support the king, polls suggest support for the monarchy is declining and is weakest among young people.
With the crown passing from Queen Elizabeth to her less popular son, republican activists hope Charles will be the last British monarch to be crowned.
"It has a hereditary billionaire individual born into wealth and privilege who basically symbolises the inequality of wealth and power in our society," said Clive Lewis, an opposition Labour Party lawmaker.
STAGGERINGLY EXPENSIVE
In London, protesters demanded an elected head of state, saying that the royal family has no place in a modern constitutional democracy and is staggeringly expensive.
"Don't you think this is all a bit silly," said one placard.
Most of the anti-monarchy protesters had congregated in Trafalgar Square next to the bronze statue of King Charles I, who was beheaded in 1649, leading to a short-lived republic.
Since Charles became king last September, there have been protests at royal events. He was heckled at a Commonwealth Day event at Westminster Abbey in March and targeted with eggs in York in November.
The death of the queen has also reignited debate in Australia, Jamaica and other parts of the Commonwealth over the need to retain Charles as their head of state.
The arrests came just days after UK police forces were granted new anti-protest powers
The state government of New South Wales said it had decided not to light up the sails of the Sydney Opera House to mark the coronation in order to save money. Events in other countries where Charles is head of state were also low key.
While many other European monarchies have come and gone, or are far diminished in scale and importance, the British royal family has remained remarkably resilient.
Police arresting a Just Stop Oil campaigner at the coronation. Yara Nardi / Getty Images
In Britain, polls show the majority still want the royal family, but there is a long-term trend of declining support.
A poll by YouGov last month found 64% of people in Britain said they had little or no interest in the coronation. Among those aged 18 to 24, the number rose to 75%.
Russian forces control about 95% of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) and the remaining 5% have no influence on the progress of the special military operation, Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin says.
"Almost 95% of the city territory has been captured in Artyomovsk to date. The remaining 5% do not play any role for the so-called development of progress and the march of the ‘Red Army’ further to the West. Two square kilometers do not influence the progress of the military operation at all," he said, cited by the Prigozhin’s press office in its Telegram channel.
Nobody communicated with him about the shortage of ammunition, Prigozhin said. "The personnel of Wagner PMC will be preserved for the next operations in interests of Russia," he noted.
The Wagner PMC founder also said he had no ambitions of leaving his mark as the person "that took Artyomovsk." "I have ambitions to be of service to our nation and state," he added.
Wagner to hand key Donbass city over to Chechens – Prigozhin
The Wagner Group private military company will withdraw from the key Donbass city of Artyomovsk (known in Ukraine as Bakhmut) on May 10, the group’s chief, Evgeny Prigozhin, has announced. The PMC’s positions will be taken over by the Chechen Special Forces Unit ‘Akhmat’, he said.
Prigozhin claimed to have been in contact with Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, to perform the maneuver. The Wagner leader expressed confidence that the Chechen units will capture Artyomovsk completely, of which just a few blocks in the city's western part remain under the control of Ukrainian forces.
“I am already in contact with [Kadyrov’s] representatives in order to start transferring positions immediately, so that on May 10, at 00:00, exactly at the moment when, according to our calculations, we will completely exhaust our combat potential, our comrades will take our places and continue the assault on the city of Bakhmut,” Prigozhin said in a statement on Saturday.
Later in the day, Kadyrov released a short video address stating that he has already raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, notifying him of his willingness to replace the Wagner fighters in the city. The Akhmat fighters are already on standby and ready to be redeployed to Artyomovsk, he added.
“The soldiers are on high alert, we are only waiting for orders. Several units have already set off towards the special military operation zone,” Kadyrov stated.
Prigozhin announced the looming withdrawal of his forces from the city earlier this week, citing heavy losses and a shortage of artillery munitions. The group will be redeployed from the frontlines to rear camps to “lick their wounds,” he said.
Artyomovsk has seen intense fighting in recent months, with the raging battle commonly referred to as the “Bakhmut meat grinder.” The city is a key road and rail junction in Donbass, with both sides reportedly suffering significant casualties during the struggle for control over it. Kiev has continuously poured reserves into the city, which remains partially surrounded by Wagner and other Russian troops.
Zaporozhye NPP Head Says Staff Ensuring Nuclear Safety, No Need to Evacuate Employees
The staff of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) is doing everything necessary to ensure nuclear safety, with the operation of all blocks suspended, and there is no need to evacuate employees now, Yuri Chernichuk, the plant's chief, said on Saturday.
"The staff of the Zaporozhye NPP is doing everything necessary to ensure nuclear safety. There are no reasons for concern. All blocks are shut down. The equipment is maintained in accordance with all necessary regulations under strict control of radiation safety standards," Chernichuk said on Telegram.
Moreover, there is currently no need to evacuate the NPP staff and Enerhodar residents, the plant's head added.
Located on the left bank of the Dnipro River, the Zaporozhye NPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe by number of units and energy output. It went under the control of Russian forces in early March 2022 and has since been repeatedly shelled, raising international concerns over a possible nuclear accident. On October 5, the Zaporozhye NPP was placed under the control of Russian institutions in line with instructions by President Vladimir Putin.
Special operation, May 6th. Main:
▪️The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that three pilots of the Russian Aerospace Forces were returned from Ukrainian captivity;
▪️Head of Chechnya Kadyrov said that "Akhmat" is ready to advance to Artyomovsk, several units have already set off in the direction of conducting a military defense;
▪️The car of Zakhar Prilepin was blown up on a highway in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the driver died, Prilepin himself was injured, Alexander Permyakov, who was detained on suspicion of involvement in the assassination attempt, admitted that he acted on instructions from the Ukrainian special services;
▪️In the Kupyansky, Krasnolimansky, Donetsk, Kherson, South-Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, Kyiv lost more than 400 military and mercenaries in a day, the Russian Defense Ministry said;
▪️Two missiles of the Ukrainian OTRK "Grom-2" were shot down over the Crimea, there are no casualties or destruction, adviser to the head of the republic Kryuchkov said.
▪️Three Russian Aerospace Forces pilots were returned to Russia as a result of a prisoner swap with Ukraine, the Russian MoD says
Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:
▪️In the Kupyansk direction, Russian forces destroyed up to 50 Ukrainian troops, two armored fighting vehicles, and an Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer;
▪️In the Krasny Liman direction, Russian forces neutralized up to 60 Ukrainian personnel, one armored fighting vehicle, two D-30 howitzers, and one Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer;
▪️In the Donetsk direction, Ukrainian losses amounted to over 185 Ukrainian troops, one tank, four armored fighting vehicles, and two D-30 and D-20 howitzers;
▪️In the South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, Russian forces destroyed over 90 Ukrainian troops, one tank, two armored fighting vehicles, a D-30 howitzer, as well as one ammunition depot;
▪️In the Kherson direction, Russian troops neutralized up to 35 Ukrainian servicemen, one Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, as well as one US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter mortar radar;
▪️Air defenses shot down one Mi-8 helicopter, three HIMARS projectiles, one HARM anti-radar missile, and 32 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the LPR, DPR, and Kharkov region.
