MOSCOW 

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday confirmed carrying out a strike on the Ukrainian General Staff’s unmanned systems command center in Kyiv.

Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, the ministry's spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said that over the past week, Russia carried out 44 group strikes with precision weapons and drones on Ukraine, targeting energy facilities supplying electricity to the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, as well as military airfields and railway lines used for the transfer of Western weapons and equipment.

"In addition, the control center for drones of Ukraine's General Staff, production workshops, and storage sites for attack drones, ammunition depots, fuel bases, as well as temporary locations of Ukraine's armed forces, nationalist formations, and foreign mercenaries were hit," he said.

Rumors about the strike had been circulating since Tuesday, with several Russian and Ukrainian politicians posting photos and making comments about the strike that was carried out from Tuesday night to Wednesday. However, until today, both Moscow and Kyiv refrained from officially commenting on the matter.

Head of the Russian Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, called the strike on Ukraine's General Staff "retaliation" for Kyiv's drone attack on the special services training center in the city of Gudermes.

Konashenkov also claimed further advancements of the Russian armies in Ukraine's eastern regions, stating that 12 settlements fell under Moscow's control over the past week, most of them in the Donetsk region.

"In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 647 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 35,119 drones, 585 air defense systems, 19,012 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,482 multiple rocket launchers, 17,158 field artillery and mortars, and 27,898 special military vehicles have been destroyed," he said.