The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated that a large amount of the US and European military hardware had been destroyed in a Russian airstrike in Ukraine’s Kharkov region as part of Moscow’s ongoing special military operation in the country.
Spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters on Saturday that “in the vicinity of the Bogodukhov railway station in the Kharkov region, a massive consignment of military equipment that Kiev had received from the US and European countries has been obliterated”.
He added that as result of the airstrike, “up to 280 [Ukrainian] nationalists as well as 48 units of weapons and military equipment have been destroyed”.
Konasheknov also singled out 18 Ukrainian military infrastructure objects, including two command posts in the Skovorodnikovo district of the Kharkov region, as well as three ammunition and fuel depots in the Odessa region that were pulverised by Russian warplanes.
Russia launched a special operation to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine on 24 February, with President Vladimir Putin stressing that the goal is “to protect people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years”.
In late March, Russia’s MoD announced that the Russian Armed Forces had successfully completed the main tasks of the operation’s first stage by significantly reducing Ukraine’s military potential. The second stage of the operation is focused on liberating the newly-recognised republics of the Donbass region, according to the MoD.