MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. Russian air defense forces shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter and three unmanned aerial vehicles and intercepted 17 HIMARS rockets in their special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.

"In the past 24 hours, the Russian air defense capabilities shot down a MiG-29 plane of the Ukrainian Air Force near the community of Toretskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic. They intercepted 17 shells of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system in the areas of the cities of Kherson and Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson Region and Melitopol in the Zaporozhye Region," the spokesman said.

"Also, three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down in the area of the settlement of Petrovskoye and the Rutchenkovo railway station in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Mospanovo in the Kharkov Region," the general added.

In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 264 Ukrainian combat aircraft, 145 helicopters, 1,711 unmanned aerial vehicles, 363 surface-to-air missile systems, 4,278 tanks and other combat armored vehicles, 794 multiple launch rocket systems, 3,284 field artillery guns and mortars and 4,785 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of their special military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov reported.

MiG-29 fighter

The MiG-29 (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a Soviet and Russian fourth-generation multirole fighter engineered by the Mikoyan Design Bureau in the 1970s. The MiG-29 is designed to engage aerial targets mainly within its radar field and also to strike ground targets with rockets within the visual range.

Various modifications of MiG-29 fighters are operational in some countries, including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, India, Kazakhstan, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

According to the data available as of 2021, the Ukrainian Air Force operated 37 MiG-29 fighters.

HIMARS rocket system

The M142 HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) is a highly mobile multiple launch rocket system developed by the US-based defense technology corporation, Lockheed Martin. The launcher with six tubes of 227mm rockets or one ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) ballistic missile is mounted on a five-tonne six-wheel chassis of FMTV (Family of Medium Tactical Vehicle) transporters.

The launcher fires over 20 types of munitions with a strike range of 30 km to 80 km (for rockets) and 300 km and more (for a tactical missile). The system has been accepted for service in some countries, including the United States, Singapore, the UAE, Canada, Poland, Romania and Jordan.