© Sputnik / Russian Defense Ministry
In a statement on Monday, the ministry said the military had conducted an overnight high-precision attack on Ukrainian facilities using air-launched assets and drones. The strikes targeted "the Kiev regime's sites storing Storm Shadow cruise missiles, depleted uranium ammunition," the statement said.
The ministry added that the barrage and the drone raid also hit Ukraine's signals intelligence centers and facilities that train sabotage groups. "The strike's objective has been achieved. All facilities have been hit," it added.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian authorities reported several explosions in the western Khmelnitsky Region, which they said damaged a production facility. Local media also reported blasts in the port city of Izmail in the southern Odessa Region.
Ukraine received Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of more than 250km, from the UK earlier this year and used them to attack civilian targets and infrastructure in Russia's Crimean Peninsula and Donbass, according to local officials.
The decision to arm Kiev with depleted uranium shells was made by both the UK and US. The rounds, which have high armor-piercing capabilities, are meant to be used by British-made Challenger and US-designed M1 Abrams tanks.
Russia has condemned the deliveries of depleted uranium shells, arguing that their use poses grave health risks for the civilian population and could lead to an escalation in the conflict. A 2022 UN Environment Program report warned that "depleted uranium and toxic substances in common explosives can cause skin irritation, kidney failure and increase the risks of cancer."
Since the start of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, Russia has repeatedly criticized Western arms shipments to Ukraine, arguing that they will only prolong the conflict but will not change the outcome.
Reader Comments
Perhaps they may even have the Ukrainian people finally have enough of the fool in Kiev and they get rid of him and then they sue for peace.
By rotating the Russian troops into the war zone, they can give their units battle experience and amass a large combat ready army. Combine that with their increased production of war material and the war machine of Russia has been built up considerably.
However, there's another take on this.
There's the "denazification" part, and I wasn't aware about how deep the nazification went in those years after Ukraine independence until their school books started showing up online after the beginning of SMO and Russian liberating some cities.
All that stuff about Stepan Bandera and everything that goes with it is mind boggling!!!
So, I suppose that the plan is to get rid of the Ukraine nation in the process by killing its reproductive base. You already have 5+ million of refugees abroad and 500K or so KIA and it started to show on demographic. Eventually, not only Ukraine as a state will collapse, but as a nation as well. And as horrible as it might sound, it is the only way to sort out the issue once and for all. And Russia can afford it from their standpoint of human losses in the SMO.