The Russian Defense Ministry claimed intercepting seven HIMARS rockets and shooting down 14 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours.
Russian air defense facilities intercepted seven rockets of the HIMARS MLRS. In addition, 14 Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed during the pasts day in the settlements of Varvarovka, Pshenichnoye, and Krasnorechenskoye of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Kirillovka, Volnovakha, and Yasinovataya of the Donetsk People’s Republic, as well as Tokmak and Balochki of the Zaporozhye Region,” Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, told reporters.
Meanwhile, an explosion in Russia’s Tula Region has injured two people and partially destroyed three residential buildings, the regional security committee said on Sunday.
As per reports, the blast in the city of Kireyevsk in the Tula region was caused by an unmanned tactical reconnaissance aerial vehicle, a spokesman for the local law enforcement agencies told TASS.
“The explosion in the city of Kireyevsk in the Tula region was caused by a Ukrainian Tu-141 Strizh unmanned aerial vehicle. The drone was stuffed with explosive substances,” the spokesman specified.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian armed forces lost over 200 soldiers, as well as nine armored vehicles, four howitzers, a Polish artillery system, and two US radars in the Donetsk direction over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
“In Donetsk, more than 200 Ukrainian servicemen, nine armored combat vehicles, two pickup trucks, two Msta-B howitzers, a Grad MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) combat vehicle, two D-30 howitzers, as well as a Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery unit and two US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar stations were destroyed over the past 24 hours,” the ministry said in a statement.
Moreover, the Russian military destroyed up to 90 Ukrainian troops, four armored combat vehicles, three vehicles, and two D-30 howitzers in the Lyman direction over the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Germany Unhappy
The German Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned Russia’s decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and called it an “attempt at nuclear intimidation,” German media reported.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow and Minsk had agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus without violating international commitments, adding that the United States had long stationed its tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its allies and NATO countries. The construction of the weapons storage facility in Belarus will be completed on July 1, Putin said.
“The comparison made by President Putin with the joint use of NATO nuclear weapons is misleading and cannot be used to justify the step announced by Russia,” the ministry said in a statement, as quoted by the German news agency dpa.
Berlin also reportedly recalled that Minsk had made several international commitments to be free of nuclear weapons.
The German authorities do not comment on the existence of nuclear weapons in the country, but leading international experts estimate the number of US nuclear bombs in the Western European country at several dozen units. For many years, opposition parties in Germany have been demanding the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from the country’s territory.
- Mail ET Dsk at etdesk (at) eurasiantimes
- Inputs from TASS News Agency
