Russian Ministry of Defense has announced eliminating more than 100 Ukrainian extremists and mercenaries following a missile attack Russia carried out last Thursday on a military location in Kharkov, eastern Ukraine.

In a briefing on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov stated that a high-precision long-distance strike that was carried out on Thursday, March 31, on a defense headquarters in Kharkov, using Iskander system, eliminated "more than 100 Ukrainian Nazis and Western mercenaries."

‼️The Iskander strike destroyed the defense headquarters in Kharkov, eliminating more than 100 Ukrainian Nazis and Western mercenaries
/Ministry of Defense, RIA/ pic.twitter.com/64JjbKQvpS

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) April 2, 2022

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.