MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. A crew operating the Uragan multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) of the Russian Battlegroup North’s 11th Army Corps has destroyed Ukrainian strongpoints and positions surrounded in the Kharkov Region during a massive strike, the Russian Defense Ministry told TASS.

"Artillery units of the Battlegroup North’s 11th Army Corps inflicted losses on the enemy. As a result of a massive strike, one of the Uragan MLRS crews destroyed strongpoints and personnel of Ukrainian units," the ministry stated, noting that Russian troops continue to tighten the encirclement and expand the external zone of control in the Kharkov Region.

The ministry emphasized that the destruction of the strongholds disrupted the enemy’s plans and destroyed crucial storage for military supplies.

In addition, the ministry reported on the combat operations conducted by the Battlegroup North in the Sumy Region. A Molniya-2 UAV crew of the 44th Army Corps detected and destroyed a self-propelled artillery unit of the Ukrainian armed forces that had been carefully camouflaged in a forest, it specified.

"The destruction of the enemy’s self-propelled artillery unit reduces the Ukrainian forces’ artillery capabilities in this sector of the front and contributes to the successful fulfillment of tasks aimed at expanding the security buffer zone," the ministry added.