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Russian precision strikes are destroying Ukrainian military facilities in the rear regions on a daily basis. Amid the ongoing night attacks, Russian missiles are also launched in the daytime, inflicting heavy damage to the Ukrainian military.
On the night of March 17, Russian drones and missiles targeted Ukrainian eastern, central and southern regions. Explosions thundered in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Zaporozhie, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Chernihiv regions.
The southern region of Odessa came under two wave of Russian drone strikes. Ukrainian air defense failed to repel the attacks. As it is often the case, the locals reported the strikes of failed Ukrainian air defense systems. Unable to secure the military targets from Russian drones, Ukrainian air defense systems deployed in the city only inflict damage to civilian facilities.
About a dozen explosions reportedly thundered in the city of Odessa and in its region, including in Arkadiya, Moldavanka, Tairova districts and Koblevo, Nerubaiskoe, Paliyevka and Usatovo villages located on the outskirts. The local Ukrainian authorities confirmed the strikes, without revealing the targets of the Russian attacks.
Russian Geran kamikaze UAVs struck the areas near the town of Pryluky in the Chernihiv region. The target could be the former Pryluky air base located nearby, which was a large base of strategic bombers during the Soviet times, but it was abandoned by Ukrainian authorities in the 2010s. It is possible that the Ukrainian military is now using the facilities of the former air base for storage of ammunition, repair of some equipment.
Russian strikes were reported in the Dnipropetrovsk region, including on the southeastern outskirts of the city of Dnipro. More Russian drones struck the areas near Pokrovsk, which is under control of the Ukrainian military in the DPR.
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One of the Russian strikes in the DPR destroyed Ukrainian military repair and maintenance base in the village of Tsukurino. As a result of the attack, a large fire broke out at the facility. According to the reports by Russian military sources, the precision strike also destroyed several pieces of military equipment, including the Swedish 155-mm self-propelled gun L52 “Archer” and the US-made Oshkosh M1070 tank transporter, which is used to transport M1 Abrams tanks. Russian military sources supposed that the targeted base was used as an important logistics hub of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donetsk direction.
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In the afternoon, strategic Ukrainian military facilities came unde a devastating attack of Russian Iskander missiles in the Mykolaiv region. The local residents filmed a series of large explosions and a huge column of smoke seen over the city. The head of the region confirmed at least two Russian strikes.
Footage from the area allowed to reveal that the target was the Mykolaiv armored plant.
According to local sources, Ukrainian authorities planned to upgrade the armored plant to use its workshops for repair of NATO armored vehicles; but their wishes are unlikely to come true. One of Russian missiles reportedly struck the repair and assembly shop of the plant, where there was the foreign equipment for German and British-made vehicles. Another missile reportedly struck the warehouses, where several units of Leopard and Challenger were awaiting repair. According to unconfirmed reports, at least 15 armored vehicles could be damaged in various ways, possibly destroyed.
The recent Russian strikes have been highly effective. The targets destroyed in recent days included locations of accumulation and deployment of Ukrainian military commanders, nationalists and foreign mercenaries. For example, as a result of the Russian missile attack on one of the resorts in Odessa on March 15, at least 550 people from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, the leadership of the national units “Tsunami” and “Lyut”, dozens of foreigners were eliminated, including Ukrainian generals. LINK More devastating strikes on the Ukrainian military personnel have been reported in Slavyansk in the DPR and in the Zhitomir regions.
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