MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. Russia’s Armed Forces have incapacitated 3,593 Ukrainian military facilities during the operation, including 61 helicopters and 121 drones, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.
"A total of 3,593 military facilities of Ukraine has been taken out of action during the operation. Sixty-one helicopters, 126 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,159 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 118 multiple rocket launchers, 436 pieces of field artillery and mortars, and 973 special military vehicles have been destroyed," he said.
Aircraft and air defenses of the Russian Aerospace Forces have shot down a Ukrainian helicopter Mi-24 and three drones in the past 24 hours, Konashenkov said.
"In the past 24 hours, the aviation and air defense units of the Russian Aerospace Forces have brought down one helicopter Mi-24 belonging to the Ukrainian Air Force and three unmanned aerial vehicles, including a Bayraktar TB2," Konashenkov said.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Russia’s tactical and army aircraft along with drones hit 79 targets of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.
"Among them are four control and communication posts, two anti-aircraft missile systems, three multiple launch rocket systems, one electronic warfare system, six ammunition and fuel depots, and 54 concentration areas of combat equipment," Konashenkov added.
Mariupol is facing a dire humanitarian situation, as hundreds of thousands of people, including foreigners, are forcibly confined there, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, the chief of the Russian National Defense Management Center, said.
"The humanitarian situation in Mariupol is critical. Hundreds of thousands of people, including foreigners, are being forcibly held by nationalists, who, threatening them with physical violence, are suppressing any attempts to leave the city," he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Eduard Basurin, deputy chief of the militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic, said that 180 civilians, including 26 children, had left Mariupol through a humanitarian corridor in the past 24 hours.