Russia Using Precision Weapons Against Ukrainian Military Targets: Russian MoD

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed today that it is attacking Ukrainian targets with ‘high-precision weapons.’

Moscow’s targets include Ukrainian military infrastructure, air defense facilities and military airfields. Ukraine’s defense ministry tweeted that it shot down five Russian planes and a helicopter in retaliatory attacks. An Su-24 jet belonging to the Russian Air Force was also destroyed by Ukrainian air defense systems.

An official statement issued by the Russian MoD added that its Armed Forces do not carry out any rocket air or artillery strikes on the cities of Ukraine. "Nothing threatens the civilian population," it said.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine to defend separatists in the east of the country, called the Donbas region. He said the operation was "aimed at demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine” and “does not include occupying Ukrainian territory.”

Putin even called on Ukrainian military "lay down their arms and go home.” He has threatened other countries that attempt to interfere with the Russian operation in Ukraine of harsh consequences.

Ukraine said Russia has launched a “full-scale invasion” and claimed that 166 pieces of tanks, artillery and armored vehicles were brought to Ukrainian territory by Russia in the last 24 hours. The country’s border guards said that the country had come under artillery attack along its northern border with Russia and Belarus.

An apartment complex in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city close to the Russian border, was hit by an airstrike today, causing an unknown number of casualties.