Russian multiple strikes hit fuel, ammunition depots, kill 120 Ukrainian soldier

Missile strikes targeting ammunition and fuel depots in eastern Ukraine have been launched by Russia in its efforts to capture more territory and possibly encircle Ukrainian forces in the region around the town of Kramatorsk.

Four such targets were struck near the towns of Barvenkovo, Pokrovskoe, Vozdvizhenka and Berezovoe, said the Russian defense ministry.

In other missile and aircraft strikes Russian forces hit 10 locations housing Ukrainian troops and equipment, killing up to 120 soldiers and destroying four tanks and six other armoured vehicles, the ministry said in a briefing released on Saturday morning.

The statement further claimed Russian artillery units carried out 389 firing missions overnight, targeting among other sites 35 command posts, 33 artillery positions, and 15 missile-artillery weapons and ammunition depots.

Eighteen Ukrainian drones were shot down, among them three Bayraktar TB-2, a Turkish-designed armed drone that has been used to considerable effect by the Ukrainian army against Russian targets.

Russia has destroyed 142 Ukrainian aircraft and 112 helicopters, 658 drones, 279 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,656 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 307 multiple launch rocket systems, and 1,189 field artillery and mortar launchers in total, according to the ministry.