And the “Interfax” news agency quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that the Russian forces launched a large-scale attack in Ukraine, during which they seized several towns and villages..
It added that “4 Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jets were shot down in an air battle near Zhytomyr, about 100 km west of the capital, Kyiv.”.
For its part, the TASS news agency said that the Russian forces “destroyed 69 aircraft on the ground and 21 aircraft in the air, since the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine on February 24.”
Also Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces had taken control of a base near the strategically important village of Radinsk in Kherson Province.
The statement of the Russian Defense Ministry said, “The Ukrainian army hastily abandoned its equipment and locations,” noting that among the equipment were T-64 and T-80 tanks, troop carriers and armored vehicles.
At the base there is an ammunition depot, anti-tank guided missiles, mortars, and more than 4.5 thousand tons of ammunition.
Kherson is located in southern Ukraine, and is considered an important port on the Black Sea and on the Dnieper River, and is home to about 300,000 people. It is the capital of Kherson Province, bordering the Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014.
Kherson is the largest city that has fallen so far into the hands of Russian forces, and its importance lies in the fact that it is located on the estuary of the Dnieper River, overlooking the Sea of Azov from the southeast, and the Black Sea from the southwest.
With Russia’s control over it, it means that it can now cross the Dnieper River, which divides Ukraine in two, and head west and north to attack Kyiv from the second direction.
Control of the area around Kherson also gives Russia a path to a continuous advance northward along the Dnieper River, toward strategically important cities such as Zaporizhia and Dnipro, as well as Enerhodar, a city of 50,000 people that houses the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Civilian victims
For its part, the United Nations confirmed, on Saturday, that more than 350 civilians had been killed in Ukraine since the start of Russian military operations.
A monitoring mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today, Saturday, that at least 351 civilians have been confirmed killed in Ukraine since the start of Russian military operations there.
The mission added that 707 others were injured in the fighting in Ukraine, noting that the real numbers may be “much higher,” according to AFP.
The mission said that the majority of civilian deaths and injuries occurred as a result of the use of explosive weapons with a wide-area effect, including heavy artillery, multi-barrel missile launch systems, rocket-propelled grenades and air strikes.
Putin and a statement on the “goal of war”
Earlier on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country aims to “disarm Ukraine” in this military operation.
“We could not ignore statements that talk about Ukraine becoming a nuclear power,” Putin said in statements while visiting the headquarters of the Russian airline “Aeroflot”.
He added, “We seek to disarm Ukraine and get rid of Nazism in it,” noting that Russia “faced a real threat.”
The Russian President also spoke about the negotiations that began with Kyiv a few days ago and have not yet yielded anything tangible. “We put our proposals on the table with Ukraine and leave them to respond,” he said.
On the other hand, Putin stressed that “any attempt to impose a no-fly zone from any other country, we will consider it a direct participation in military activities.”