The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that 959 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol over the past day.
Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said there were 80 wounded among them, including 51 soldiers who needed hospitalization.
All wounded were transported to hospitals and provided medical care, he said.
Konashenkov also said that Russia downed two Ukrainian fighter jets and 15 unmanned aerial vehicles last night.
“One Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft was shot down by Russian air defense over the settlements of Tripolye of the Donetsk People’s Republic. In addition, a MiG-29 of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down near the village of Kamennaya Yaruga, Kharkiv region,” he said.
Two more Ukrainian fighter jets and one S-300 air defense system were hit by the Russian Aerospace Forces, he added.
Also, rocket troops and artillery hit 76 control points, 421 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment, as well as 147 artillery and mortar units in firing position, and a pontoon crossing, built by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to force the Seversky Donets River.
“In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 172 aircraft, 125 helicopters, 927 unmanned aerial vehicles, 311 air defense systems, 3,139 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 389 multiple rocket launchers, 1,548 field artillery and mortar guns, as well as 2,997 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed,” he said.
At least 3,572 people have been killed and 4,062 injured in Ukraine since the start of the war on Feb. 24, according to UN estimates. The true toll is believed to be much higher.
Over 6.2 million people have fled to other countries, with some 7.7 million people internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.
-AA