Russian forces have taken out a large ammunition depot in southern Ukraine as they continue to conduct “high-precision strikes” on Kiev’s forces, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday.
According to the ministry, the attack eliminated a depot storing 45,000 tons of ammunition near the town of Voznesensk in Nikolaev region. The statement also claimed Kiev’s losses as “more than 300 Ukrainian service members killed and up to 1,000 wounded” in the last 24 hours in this area.
The Defense Ministry stated that its forces had also targeted Kiev’s military in the Kharkov region, where Moscow’s troops recently retreated from a number of settlements to regroup, amid a Ukrainian offensive. According to the statement, Russia conducted a strike on the nationalist unit Kraken, the 113rd Brigade of Territorial Defense and the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, killing up to 250 service members and eliminating more than 20 military vehicles.
Russia has been repeatedly targeting Ukrainian ammunition depots since launching its military offensive on February 24, in an effort to destroy Western-supplied weapons and ammunition, as well as to reduce Kiev’s overall military capabilities.
The new attacks come on the heels of an apparent advance of Ukrainian troops in the Kharkov region, with the nation’s president Vladimir Zelensky touting on Saturday the “liberation” of “2,000 [square] kilometers of our territory.” At the same time, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Kiev’s five-day offensive both in the east and in the south of the country has cost it more than 12,000 casualties.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.