MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. Russia’s air defenses on Tuesday shot down Ukraine’s Tochka-U missile and intercepted 9 Smerch rockets over the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Kharkov Region, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Tuesday.

"Russia’s air defenses in the area of Rudnya, the Chernigov Region, shot down a Ukrainian drone. In the area of Novaya Dmitrovka, one Tochka-U ballistic missile was shot down in flight. Nine rockets fired with Smerch multiple launchers were intercepted in the areas of Alexandrovka and Kamenka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, and also near Semyonovoskoye, Donetskoye, Malaya Kamyshevakha and Chervony Shakhtyor, in the Kharkov Region.

According to Russian Defense Ministry statistics, the list of Ukraine’s losses sustained since the beginning of the special military operation is as follows: 146 planes, 112 helicopters, 697 unmanned aerial vehicles, 287 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,793 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 319 multiple rocket launchers, 1,267 field artillery pieces and mortars, and 2,598 special military vehicles.

The Tochka-U is a modernized version of the Soviet high-accuracy tactical missile system Tochka, developed by the Kolomna Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering. Its task is to hit small targets 15-120 kilometers away inside the enemy’s defense. It consists of a single-stage missile, carrying an inseparable warhead and controlled throughout the entire flight path. In Russia, the last Tochka-U was withdrawn from service at the end of 2019.

All of the units that had used it previously were re-armed with the Iskander-M operational-tactical missile systems.