March 18 Briefing by Russia’s MOD

ALERT:  Sourced from Russian State-Controlled Media

From Colonelcassad.livejournal.com

• The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
• The grouping of troops of the Lugansk People’s Republic with the fire support of the Russian Armed Forces liberated more than 90 percent of the territory of the republic.
• Currently, the units of the Lugansk People’s Republic are eliminating scattered groups of nationalists on the southern outskirts of Rubezhnoye liberated settlement.
• In the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue their successful offensive in the northern direction.

During the day, they took control of Zolotaya Niva, Novodonetsky, Novomayorskoye and Prechistovka. The advance was 16 kilometers.

• In Mariupol, units of the Donetsk People’s Republic, with the support of the Russian Armed Forces, narrow the encirclement and fight against nationalists in the city center.
• During the night, aviation and air defence means of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down 6 more Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, including 1 Bayraktar TB-2.
• Operational-tactical and army aviation hit 81 military assets of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Among them: 4 multiple launch rocket systems, 3 command posts, 8 ammunition depots, and 28 areas of military equipment concentration.
• In total, 183 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,406 tanks, and other armored combat vehicles, 138 multiple launch rocket systems, 535 field artillery and mortars, as well as 1,197 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation.

Statement by Russian Defence Ministry

• ️On the night of March, 18, the residential areas of Melitopol were attacked by Tochka-U cluster-warhead missiles from a territory controlled by the Kiev nationalist regime.
• The Russian air defence systems have repelled the missile launched against the civilian population of the city.
• ️The attack had been launched from the northern direction, south-eastern outskirts of Zaporozhie which is fully controlled by the Ukrainian nationalist units.
• The Russian Federation Armed Forces have detected the coordinates of the Ukrainian ballistic missiles.
• ️In order to prevent missile attacks and to protect the Ukrainian citizens against new attacks of the Kiev nationalist regime, the rocket launchers of the Ukrainian nationalists have been destroyed by two Iskander missiles.
• It should be emphasized that Melitopol is in ordinary conditions. Shops and public transport are in operation. Every day the Russian servicemen deliver humanitarian aid that has repeatedly been told and shown by mass media representatives.
• The subsequent application of ballistic missiles against civilian residents by the Kiev regime whose representatives knew about the absence of Russian Armed Forces firing positions in residential areas of Melitopol proves the criminal nature of the nationalist leadership of Ukraine.

Source:  Colonelcassad.livejournal.com