MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. Russian air defense systems intercepted one Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile and two HIMARS MLRS shells, destroyed 18 drones, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Sunday.

"During the day, air defense systems intercepted a long-range Storm Shadow cruise missile and two shells of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system," he said.

Konashenkov added that over the course of the day, air and artillery forces of Russia's Western Combat Group destroyed up to 60 Ukrainian servicemen in the direction of Kupyansk, stopped the activities of two sabotage and reconnaissance groups, and destroyed a Krab self-propelled tracked howitzer and a Msta-B howitzer.

Russian forces destroyed a US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar near the village of Maksimilyanovka in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).

According to the Defense Ministry, since the beginning of the special military operation, 444 aircraft, 239 helicopters, 4,686 unmanned aerial vehicles, 426 anti-aircraft missile systems, 10,156 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,125 multiple launch rocket systems combat vehicles, 5,149 field artillery guns and mortars, and 11,028 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed.