After Russia’s Deputy Foreign Secretary Sergei Ryabkov delivered a strong warning to the U.S. that Western convoys supplying weapons to Ukraine are “legitimate targets,” Sputnik reported that “up to 180 foreign mercenaries were killed in precision strikes carried out by Russia against Ukrainian training centers located at the Yavorovsky military compound and near the settlement of Starichi, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov has stated.”
In a Rossiya-1 TV interview on March 12, Ryabkov stated that Russia had “warned the United States that pumping Ukraine with weapons from a number of countries orchestrated by them is not just a dangerous move, but these actions are actions that turn the corresponding convoys into legitimate targets.”
In addition, the Russian Air Force and air defenses destroyed several Ukrainian aircraft, including one Su-24 attack jet, and 11 unmanned aerial aircraft. As well, reporter Major General Konashenkov reported, Russian drones destroyed 46 military objects of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including three command centers, one air defense missile system, and two ammunition warehouses, as well as military vehicles. Moscow has reported that anyone attacking Russian troops is a legitimate target.
Radio Free Europe’s Ukrainian Service described one of the two principal targets that the Russian Defense Forces destroyed in a March 13 dispatch: “The Yavoriv International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, a 360 sq. km facility, is less than 25 km from the Polish border and is one of Ukraine’s biggest [bases] and the largest in the western part of the country. Ukraine holds most of its drills with NATO countries there.”
