Europe-supplied tanks destroyed by latest Russian attack on Kiev

KYIV, June 5 Reuters - Russia struck Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with missiles early on Sunday for the first time in more than a month and the airstrikes had destroyed Europe-supplied tanks in the Ukrainian capital, Moscow said on Sunday.  

Russian forces carried out airstrikes “on the outskirts of Kiev, destroying the T-72 tanks and other armored vehicles that were supplied by Eastern European countries and kept in railcar repair facilities.” Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said. He did not specify where the tanks came from, but Poland previously has said it had donated T-72 tanks to Ukraine.  

Ukraine said Russia had carried out the strike in the capital using long-range air-launched missiles fired from heavy bombers as far away as the Caspian Sea - a weapon far more valuable than the tanks Russia claimed to have hit.  

Sunday’s attack was the first big strike on Kyiv since late April, when a missile killed a journalist. Recent weeks have seen Russia focus its destructive might mainly on front lines in the east and south, although Moscow occasionally strikes elsewhere in what it calls a campaign to degrade Ukraine’s military infrastructure and block western arms shipments.