Russia has launched massive strikes on Ukraine

reuters.com: Russia said on Monday it had launched massive strikes against Ukrainian armed forces and related military installations overnight, using its air force, missile troops, artillery and air defense systems to hit hundreds of targets on the territory of its southern neighbor.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that 16 Ukrainian military facilities were destroyed overnight by air-launched missiles, including five command posts, a fuel depot and three ammunition depots, as well as Ukrainian armored vehicles and forces.

It says that these strikes were carried out in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolaiv, and that Russian aircraft struck 108 areas where, according to it, Ukrainian forces and armored vehicles were concentrated.

In other areas, the Ministry of Defense reported the destruction of 12 Ukrainian attack drones and tanks, as well as the destruction by Iskander missiles of four warehouses of weapons and equipment in Luhansk, Vinnytsia and Donetsk regions.

Russia, which sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, has pledged to continue the so-called "special military operation" to degrade the Ukrainian armed forces and eradicate people it calls dangerous nationalists until all its goals are achieved.

It is currently focused on trying to take full control of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which has been under siege for several weeks.

The Defense Ministry said that Russian artillery also struck 315 Ukrainian military targets overnight and that three Ukrainian army helicopters, two MiG-29 fighters and one Su-25 aircraft were shot down by air defense means.