The Russian military has conducted strikes on a drone command and control center of the Ukrainian General Staff, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has announced.
The ministry mentioned the strike in its weekly briefing on Friday. Apart from the command center in Kiev, the Russian military also targeted Ukrainian drone manufacturing sites and UAV stockpiles, it said.
The Defense Ministry did not specify when the strike took place, as the center was apparently subjected to multiple attacks over the week. On Tuesday, the Russian military also mentioned the facility in its daily briefing.
Images shared by former Ukrainian MP Igor Mosiychuk on Wednesday purport to show a large hole in the roof of a General Staff building. It only sustained limited damage as the munition failed to explode, Mosiychuk claimed, citing military sources.
Separately, the head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, said on Wednesday that the Ukrainian General Staff’s UAV command center was targeted by Geran-2 kamikaze drones in two waves. The Chechen leader described the strike as “additional,” stating that it turned out to be very effective, with at least nine Ukrainian servicemen killed and 17 others injured.
Kadyrov also said the strikes on the drone command and control center were in retaliation for an attack against the Russian Special Forces University in Chechnya early this week. He initially said it only inflicted material damage on an empty building, but later claimed that a number of Ukrainian POWs kept at the facility were killed in the strike.