Russia MoD unveils tally of 37th day of war in Ukraine
Week five of the war in Ukraine brought additional losses to military airfields in Poltava and Dnipro.
Russian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov told a news briefing that "high-precision long-distance strikes from air and sea destroyed gas and diesel depots in the morning at the Kremenchuk oil refinery, which was supplying Ukrainian armed forces in the country’s center and east."
The Russian air force has rendered military airfields in Poltava and Dnipro, both in central Ukraine, inoperable, he added.
"High-precision airstrikes have rendered military airfields in Poltava and Dnepropetrovsk inoperable," Konashenkov stressed at a news conference, referring to Dnipro.
Furthermore, two Ukrainian helicopter gunships were shot down by Russian air defenses near the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, he reported.
"High-precision airstrikes put military airfields in the cities of Poltava and Dnepropetrovsk out of service," Konashenkov told reporters, referring to Dnipro by its old name.
"Russian air defenses positioned near the city of Sumy and the town of Urozhaine struck down two Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters. They also destroyed 24 Ukrainian drones," Konashenkov concluded.
In total, 124 aircraft and 81 helicopters, 353 drones, 1,839 tanks, and other armored combat vehicles, 202 multiple launch rocket systems, 773 field artillery, and mortars, as well as 1,711 Ukrainian Armed Forces special military vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
Russia launched in February a special military operation in Ukraine to counter NATO's eastward expansion, the Ukrainian shelling of Donbass, and the killing of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, in addition to Moscow wanting to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine.