Russia says it destroyed S-300 missile launchers days after US helped provide them: Live Ukraine updates
The Russian military says it used sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles to destroy four S-300 air defense missile launchers near the city of Dnipro, just days after Slovakia sent Ukraine an S-300 air defense system in a deal worked out by the U.S.
About two dozen Ukrainian troops were also hit by the strike, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Monday. The statement said Ukraine had received the technology from an unnamed European country. Konashenkov’s claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Slovakia’s prime minister office issued a statement calling the news that system was destroyed “disinformation.”
Slovakia was able to provide the system because the U.S. was willing to give Slovakia a Patriot battery to replace it, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.
It was unclear whether both sides are referring to the same airstrike. The Russians have targeted missile defense systems in three locations in recent days.
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VISUAL EXPLAINER: Mapping and tracking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Latest developments:
►President Joe Biden is set to speak with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday as he presses world leaders to take a hard line against Russia’s Ukraine invasion.
►Moscow has appointed a new war chief after a largely unsuccessful six weeks of battle in Ukraine, a senior U.S. official said Sunday. The official, who is not authorized to be identified and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, 60, has a history of brutality against Syrians and other civilians.
Major Russian assault on east Ukraine likely within days, EU official says
Russian is sending a large contingent of troops toward eastern Ukraine and appears poised to launch a major offensive in the Donbas region within days, said Josep Borrell, E.U. high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. The region includes Donetsk and Luhansk, where Moscow-backed separatists established de facto republics that even Russia only recognized days before the war broke out in February.
“I’m afraid the Russian troops are massing on the east to launch an attack on the Donbas,” Borrell said Monday. “I am afraid … the war will increase on the Donbas.”
Russian forces bisected strategically crucial Mariupol from the city center to the coast on Sunday, isolating the remaining Ukrainian defenders in two locations, according to the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War.