TEHRAN (FNA)- Russian military aircraft destroyed a command center with Kalibr cruise missiles, killing dozens of Ukrainian officers, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
“More than 50 generals and officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed,” the statement read, RT reported.
According to the defense ministry, the strike took place near the village of Shirokaya Dacha in Dnepropetrovsk Region, Ukraine.
The missiles hit the compound where commanders of several Ukrainian units had gathered for a meeting, the ministry noted.
The ministry added that Kalibr missiles were also used to destroy 10 M777 howitzers and up to 20 armored vehicles that were recently delivered from the West, and had been stored inside a factory building in the Southern city of Nikolayev.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on Sunday that Ukrainian artillery destroyed several Russian multiple rocket launchers.
Both Russia and Ukraine insist that they only hit military targets, and have accused each other of killing civilians.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov has confirmed the Russian Su-57 fifth-generation stealth air superiority jet fighters have been used in combat missions in Ukraine.
The jets have been “repeatedly” used in Ukraine, both individually and as part of squads, Borisov told reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Saturday. He added that the plane’s weapons were “very effective”.