© Sputnik/ Oleg Lastochkin
The air wing of Russian aircraft-carrying missile cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov destroyed over 1,000 terrorist targets during its mission in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday.
“For the first time in the history of the Russian Navy, carrier-based aircraft conducted combat missions by launching strikes directly from the ship on terrorists’ headquarters, control centers, groups of militants, hardware, firing positions and terrorist strongholds,” the ministry said.
According to the statement, Russian pilots carried out 420 combat sorties (117 at night) and 750 missions as part of the search and rescue operations and transport support. Over 40 naval-based aircraft participated in the operation.
On Friday, the air wing of Admiral Kuznetsov is coming back to the home airbase in Severomorsk in northern Russia. According to the live stream commentator on Rossiya 24 TV broadcaster, several MiG-29K fighter jets already landed at the air base
