France-made Artillery, Ukrainian MiG-29, Missiles Shot Down: Russian MoD

The Russian defense ministry said several Ukrainian aircraft including MiG-29 and Su-25 jets as well as France-produced Caesar howitzers were destroyed by their military.

"The operational-tactical aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the Bashtanka region of the Nikolaev region shot down a MiG-29 aircraft of the Ukrainian air forces in the air," Igor Konashenkov, official representative of the ministry, said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"Russian air defense systems shot down two Su-25 aircraft in the Kurulka region of the Kharkiv region, Kvitnevoe in the Kherson region and a Mi-8 helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force in the Arkhangelsk region of the Nikolaev region in a day," he added.

“Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile forces and artillery hit 39 command posts, six ammunition depots, artillery and mortar units in 68 districts per day, including a French-made Caesar self-propelled artillery unit on Kubansky Island, as well as manpower and military equipment in 216 districts,” Konashenkov noted.

President Emmanuel Macron pledged to send several Caesar systems in April, later telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that arms supply from Paris would "increase in intensity.” Caesar is manufactured by France’s partly state-owned arms maker Nexter. It is a 155mm howitzer mounted on a six-wheeled truck chassis, capable of firing shells at ranges of more than 40 km.

“On top of the 12 Caesars already delivered, I took the decision (to deliver) in the coming weeks six additional Caesars,” Macron told a news conference alongside Zelensky, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Romanian leader Klaus Iohannis, on June 16.

Konashenkov said a self-propelled launcher of the Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system was destroyed at a firing position in the Troitskoye district of the Odessa region. He also announced the interception of seven Ukrainian ballistic missiles "Tochka-U" in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions, as well as eight shells of multiple launch rocket systems in the Kharkov region, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and in the area of ​​​​Snake Island.

Konashenkov also said Russian air defense systems shot down nine Ukrainian drones in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions and the DPR.

In total, according to the ministry, 221 aircraft, 134 helicopters, 1,391 drones, 351 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,853 tanks and armored vehicles, 692 combat vehicles of multiple launch rocket systems, 3,052 artillery pieces and mortars, as well as 3,907 vehicles were destroyed during the military operation in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops say they managed to eliminate 2S3 Akatsiya (CO-152) Soviet 152.4 mm self-propelled gun with their U.S.-made M777 howitzer.