The Defense Ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, told reporters that as part of the actions to demilitarize and denazify the Ukrainian territory, 99 aircraft, 128 drones, 1,194 tanks and other armored combat vehicles have been destroyed.

The military chief said that 121 multiple rocket launchers, 443 field artillery pieces and mortars and 991 units of special military vehicles have been also eliminated.

On the other hand, Konashenkov stated that the Russian military forces released some 300 citizens and monks who had been held hostage by members of Ukraine’s Aidar battalion in the Orthodox Holy Dormition Nikolo-Vasilyevsky Monastery, in the village of Nikolskoye.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, after the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) requested help to repel the increase in aggression from Kiev.

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