MOSCOW (Dispatches) - Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday  said the country’s forces have targeted an ammunition depot in Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk Region, destroying over 100 U.S.-made HIMARS rockets.

“On July 24, a strike by Russia’s Aerospace Forces on an ammunition depot near the settlement of Lyubimovka, Dnepropetrovsk region, destroyed more than a hundred missiles for the U.S.-made HIMARS Multiple launch rocket system,” the ministry’s report reads. It is also noted that up to 120 Ukrainian military personnel guarding the facility, as well as foreign mercenaries and technical specialists, were killed.

The update follows a Russian Defense Ministry report on Monday claiming that Moscow had targeted and destroyed US-supplied weapons, including heavy artillery in western Ukraine, using “sea-based high-precision long-range weapons.”

 The U.S., which is Kiev’s biggest backer in its conflict with Moscow, had supplied Ukraine with 16 HIMARS systems as of July 22 while the UK has provided another three launchers capable of firing the same munitions. However, last week, the Russian military claimed to have destroyed four of these rocket launchers. Kiev officials have refuted these claims as “misinformation.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry also reported that its forces had carried out strikes on Ukrainian military personnel and equipment in 142 districts, destroying a number of howitzers and artillery platoons. According to the ministry, Ukraine has so far lost over 760 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and more than 3,200 artillery pieces since the beginning of hostilities in February.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

 

West Running Out of Measures to Put Pressure on Russia

 

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Western countries are competing with each other to take steps against Russia but they are running out of measures to put pressure on Moscow.

When commenting on a possible ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians, he said, “We can see that EU countries and North American nations are literally competing with each other to take unfriendly measures against Russia.”

“However, we can also see that they are running out of measures that they expect to put pressure on us and make us change our position, though it’s a mistaken belief,” Peskov noted.

Kremlin spokesman stressed that Moscow will react very negatively and take action in case Finland limits issuing visas to Russians; however, Russia hopes that such an initiative will not be implemented.