A trio of Peruvian thieves managed to make international news headlines after pulling off one of the dumbest heists in history – 220 sneakers from various brands, all for the right foot.

The hilarious crime occurred on April 30th, at a sports goods store in Huancayo, central Peru. At around 03:30 am, three men managed to cut the padlocks at the back of the store and steal three large crates filled with sneaker boxes from various brands. What the thieves didn’t realize was that all the shoeboxes they stole only contained sneakers for the right foot, as the owner had prepared the three crates to have the footwear displayed at a local sports goods fair. Authorities suspect that the thieves have hidden their haul, as there is no way that they can sell the sneakers on the black market without their pairs.

“We have carried out the inspection at the scene, the particular thing about this theft is that only right-foot sneakers have been stolen,” Eduan Díaz, head of the Junín police region, told América Noticias, adding that it’s just a matter of time before the thieves are identified, as they were caught on surveillance cameras in the area, and have left their prints at the crime scene.

Even with the left sneakers still in their possession, the owner of the store estimates losses of around $13,000, unless the 220 stolen sneakers are recovered, because, just like the thieves, he can’t sell the sneakers individually.

The sneaker store had only been open for a few months but is one of several to be burglarized recently. In mid-April, the National Police of Peru captured a thief who had made off with six sacks full of sneakers from a shoe store in Ica, a city in southern Peru.

“Surely they wanted to sell it at half price,” one Twitter user joked.

Oddity Central

A delegation of five Nigerian Weightlifters and two coaches returned to the country on Thursday after they amassed 12 medals at the 2023 Senior Africa Weightlifting Championship in Tunisia, which also serves as 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers.

The delegation, led by the President of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, NWF Ibrahim Abdul, came into the country via Lagos.

This was announced in a statement signed by the federation’s media officer, Amaechi Agbo.

Nigeria won 12 medals, comprising three gold, seven silver, and two bronze medals at the championship.

Lawal Rofiat and Olarinoye Adenike Adijat won three gold and three silver medals, respectively, in the 59kg women’s category on Tuesday.

Eze Joy Ogbonne and Edidiong Umoafia won six additional medals on Wednesday. While Ogbonne clinched three silver medals in the 71kg women’s category, Umoafia won a silver and two bronze medals in 73kg men.

Umoafia could have won more medals, but he had an injury during the Snatch, where he won a silver medal. He managed to continue and got a bronze in the Clean & Jerk and Total.

Nigeria’s quest to increase their medal haul on Wednesday did not go as planned after Akano Desmond came fourth in the 89kg men’s category.

Desmond, who rounded off Nigeria’s participation at the championship, had a lift of 145kg in the snatch, 190kg in the Clean & Jerk and a Total lift of 255 kilograms to emerge fourth in the category.

Nigeria weightlifters will participate in six Championship qualifiers as they seek to return Nigeria to the global weightlifting map in the 2024 Olympics Games in Paris, France.

PT

Presidential Election Petitions Court has fixed May 22 to rule on the modalities for the conduct of the main hearing in the petition by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

Presiding justice of the court, Haruna Tsammani, on Thursday adjourned the petition of the APM on the date, which is also meant to hear agreements by parties on the number of witnesses and time to be allocated for their examination and cross-examination.

Lawyers to the parties in the APM petition, INEC, APC, Tinubu, Shettima, and Kabiru Masari confirmed that they agreed not to object to any documents certified by INEC to be relied on at the trial.

The panel also reserved a ruling on the application by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for the live broadcast of the proceedings of the court.

As the pre-hearing session is set to end on Monday, the panel is also expected to rule on agreements on motions to be allowed in the main hearing as agreed by parties in the petition, which is expected to be on the same Monday.

Meanwhile, the panel has directed Atiku’s lawyers and the parties in the matter to attend the sitting on Friday to adopt their outstanding motions after those of the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Tinubu and the APC have filed separate applications seeking to strike out paragraphs or the entire reply of Atiku to their preliminary objection where he raised fresh issues of dual citizenship and drug offenses forfeiture in the US.

Similarly, INEC, Tinubu, and APC on Thursday argued their respective motions opposing the live broadcast of the proceedings of the court.

Moving the motion on Thursday, lead counsel to Atiku, Chris Uche, said the application was necessary because of the “monumental importance and significance” of the petition to members of the public.

He said the court should discountenance the objections to the application as it did not raise a single legislation or statute in support of their objection.

But counsel to INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, said the application was unnecessary, uncalled for, and defeats the aim of the court as the media already have access to proceedings.

He said any special provision for live broadcast has to come by judicial policy, which the panel as constituted could not do.

Similarly, counsel to Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun, described the application as strange because the court is not a stadium ground, theatre, or circus but a place of serious business. 

He noted that the security of judges, lawyers, and witnesses could be jeopardised by the live broadcast.

Making his submission, counsel to APC, Lateef Fagbemi, described the application as similar to seeking a reality TV like the ‘Big Brother Series’, adding that the petitioners did not disclose the injury they would suffer if the application was not granted.

The parties also informed the court that they would similarly be objecting to LP and Obi’s application for the live broadcast on Friday.

The panel directed that the parties must present all issues that they would be objecting to or not and the time for their witnesses during the main hearing.

Daily Trust

Federation Account Allocation Committee says it shared N655.93bn among the three tiers of government in April 2023.

The figure represents a decrease of N58.7bn compared to the N714.63bn shared in March 2023.

FAAC disclosed this in a communiqué issued at the end of its latest meeting in Abuja on Thursday.

The allocation shared for April is consistent with the pattern of declines throughout this year.

The total amount includes gross statutory revenue, Value Added Tax, Augmentations from Forex and Non-oil Mineral Revenue, and electronic money transfer levies.

The Federal Government received N248.81bn, the states received N218.31bn, and the local government councils got N160.6bn, while the oil-producing states received N28.22bn as derivation (13 per cent of mineral revenue).

It was also noted that the gross revenue available from the Value Added Tax for the month of April 2023 was N217.74bn, with the cost of collection taking N8.71bn, and the rest was shared among the Federal Government, States and Local Government Councils.

The breakdown showed “From that amount, the sum of N8.71bn was allocated for Costs of Collection and the sum of N6.271 given for Transfers and Refunds. The remaining sum of N202.76bn was distributed to the three tiers of government of which the Federal Government got N30.41bn, the States received N101.38bn, Local Government Councils got N70.97bn.”

For the Gross Statutory Revenue, N497.46bn was received, with N18.79bn as the Cost of Collection and a total of N114.02bn for Transfers, Refunds and Consultancy fees.

The remaining balance of N364.65bn was shared with the Federal Government (N180.66bn), States (N91.63bn), and LGCs got (N70.65bn), while Oil Derivation (13 per cent Mineral Revenue) got N21.72bn.

The communique added that N15.12bn from the electronic money transfer Levies was distributed to the three tiers of government.

The breakdown for EMTL showed “the Federal Government received N2.18bn, States got N7.26bn, Local Government Councils received N5.08bn and the sum of N0.61bn was allocated to Costs of Collection.”

It added, “The Communique disclosed an Augmentation N50bn from Forex Equalization, which was shared as follows; Federal Government received N22.92bn, the States got N11.62bn, the sum of N8.96bn allocated to Local Government Councils, while N6.5bn given to Derivation (13 per cent of Mineral Revenue).

“Also, N24bn Augmentation from Non Mineral Revenue was shared accordingly. The Federal Government got N12.64bn, the States received N6.41bn, while the Local Government Councils got N4.94bn.”

It was noted that Petroleum Profit Tax, Companies Income Tax, Oil and Gas Royalties, Import and Excise Duties and Value Added Tax all decreased considerably, only Electronic Money Transfer Levy increased albeit marginally.

It added, “The balance in the Excess Crude Account as at May 18, 2023 was $473,754.57.”

Punch

As the Dangote Refinery begins operations next week, the supply of 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to the facility is going to commence, Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, announced on Thursday.

Kyari, who disclosed this at the ongoing 4th Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, also urged all stakeholders to join the national oil company in growing crude oil and gas production in Nigeria.

He said the NNPCL, which had 20 per cent stake in the refinery, was ready to meet its crude supply obligations to the facility, stressing that with the coming on stream of the refinery next week, the national oil company “wll be supplying 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Dangote.”

He was quoted in a statement as saying, “We want to address the energy challenges so that industrialisation can come to the country. 48 per cent of all revenue that comes to the government comes from the oil and gas sector and we are in a very good position to support the growth of the economy.”

Dangote Refinery, established by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is scheduled to be inaugurated on May 22. The inauguration would be done by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The 650,000bpd facility, estimated to worth over $19bn, is an integrated refinery project under construction in the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos, Nigeria. It is expected to be Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility.

The company, on its website, said the refinery would meet 100 per cent of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products and also have a surplus of each of these products for export.

“Dangote Petroleum Refinery is a multi-billion dollar project that will create a market for $21bn per annum of Nigerian crude. It is designed to process Nigerian crude with the ability to also process other crude,” the firm stated.

The announcement of the planned inauguration of the facility on May 22 had also elicited excitement and expectations among Nigerians, industry operators, government officials and other stakeholders.

“We are optimistic and excited to know that the refinery is set for the inauguration, considering the humongous benefits that it is going to have on not just the oil sector, but on the Nigerian economy,” the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Ukadike Chinedu, had stated.

“With the coming on board of the Dangote Refinery, we believe that Nigeria will say goodbye to PMS scarcity, as well as the poor supply of other petroleum products,” Ukadike stated.

Punch

National Population Commission (NPC) says it has spent about N200 billion for the preparation of the 2023 population and housing census.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting on Thursday, Nasir Kwarra, executive chairman of the commission, said the money spent was part of the N800 billion expected from the federal government as the total budget for the conduct of the population census.

Kwarra said the money included the cost of more than five years of preparing for the exercise.

He said the cost of conducting a digital census was high as the commission would be procuring equipment and data needed for the exercise.

He said about one million personnel have been recruited to conduct a credible and acceptable digital census.

“It is important to sustain the tempo of the preparation for the census. The focus of the commission is to lay a foundation for future censuses,” Kwarra said.

He assured the public of the commission’s commitment to ensuring a credible census.

Also speaking, Inuwa Jalingo, census manager, said the commission worked hard to conduct a digital census.

Jalingo added that the commission was prepared to ensure a robust quality dashboard and data for the exercise.

In April, President Muhammadu Buhari directed that the census be postponed. The exercise was billed to take place across the country between May 3 and 5.

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, who announced the postponement in a statement, said the new date for the census would be determined by the incoming administration.

The Cable

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the dissolution of the board of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA).

Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, in a statement on Thursday, said Buhari also approved the appointment of James Akintola as the board chairman of FERMA to succeed Tunde Lemo.

Adesina said Lemo had earlier voluntarily stepped down from the position.

“Other members of the old board have their terms renewed,” the statement reads.

“Lemo conveys his appreciation to President Buhari for the opportunity given him to serve the country.”

The new FERMA chairman had occupied a corresponding position in many states before his new appointment.

Akintola had been senior special assistant, infrastructure in Ogun state and consultant to the Kwara government on infrastructure.

He was the special adviser on infrastructure in Oyo and executive chairman of Lagos state public works corporation, among others.

Akinola holds a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Lagos, and an MSc in the same field from Obafemi Awolowo University.

Established by an act of the national assembly in 2002, FERMA commenced operations in 2003. It has two operational departments (east and west). Each of them is headed by an executive director.

The operations department is charged with the responsibility of road maintenance across the country.

The Cable

National Chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, and three other national executive members, on Thursday, announced their return to the party secretariat.

The development is coming one month after they were barred by Hamza Muazu of Federal High Court in Abuja from parading themselves as national officers of the party.

The judge ruled that Abure; his National Secretary, Farouk Ibrahim; National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu and one other, should no longer be given recognition as party executives.

The order was granted in an ex parte application argued by James Ogwu Onoja, in which he informed the court the affected national officers allegedly forged several documents of the FCT High Court to carry out unlawful substitutions in the recently-held 2023 general elections.

According to him, such documents included receipts, seal and affidavits of the court, which he claimed the party officials used to carry out criminal activities.

However, addressing journalists at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Abure announced the official return of all suspended national executive members to the secretariat following motion for stay at the Court of Appeal.

He dismissed reports that the Labour Party has been factionalised, despite the fact that Bashiru Apapa had taken over as acting National Chairman with Abure’s suspension.

The Abure and Apapa factions clashed on Wednesday at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja where the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, are challenging the emergence of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as winner of the February 25 presidential election.

Speaking on Thursday on his return, Abure said, “It has become imperative for me to address this press conference to properly put the legal issues surrounding the leadership of the party in proper perspectives. It is pertinent to state categorically that Labour Party has no faction. It has only one leadership and that leadership is the National Working Committee led by myself, Julius Abure.”

Punch

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces in retreat near Bakhmut, Ukraine and Wagner say

The Ukrainian military and Russia's Wagner private army both reported further Russian retreats around the city of Bakhmut on Thursday, as Kyiv pressed on with its biggest advance for six months ahead of a planned counteroffensive.

Ukrainian troops near the front line said Russia was bombarding access roads to slow the Ukrainian assault, which has shifted momentum after months of slow Russian gains in Europe's deadliest ground combat since World War Two.

"Now, for the most part, as we have started to advance, they are shelling all the routes to front positions, so our armoured vehicles can't deliver more infantry, ammunition and other things," said Petro Podaru, commander of a Ukrainian artillery unit.

Ukraine's military said troops had advanced in places by more than a mile. Its forces had been on the defensive for half a year, weathering a huge offensive by Moscow that saw only slow gains.

"Despite the fact that our units do not have an advantage in equipment ... and personnel, they have continued to advance on the flanks, and covered a distance of 150 to 1,700 metres (1.1 miles)," military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi said in televised comments.

Ukraine's gains have been accompanied by a deepening public split within Russia's forces between Wagner, which has led the Bakhmut campaign, and the regular Russian military.

The blasted ruins of Bakhmut, described by both sides as a "meat grinder", would be Moscow's only prize for its huge winter offensive that failed elsewhere along the front.

Kyiv says it has launched local advances around Bakhmut as a prelude to an upcoming big counteroffensive that it hopes will turn the tide against Russia's 15-month-old invasion.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin says his forces inside Bakhmut itself are still advancing, on the cusp of pushing Ukrainian troops out of their last foothold in the built-up area on the city's western outskirts.

But he accuses commanders of Russia's regular forces of abandoning ground north and south of the city, raising the risk of troops inside being encircled.

"Unfortunately, units of the Russian Defence Ministry have withdrawn up to 570 metres (1,880 feet) to the north of Bakhmut, exposing our flanks," Prigozhin said in his latest voice message on Thursday.

"I am appealing to the top leadership of the Ministry of Defence - publicly - because my letters are not being read," Prigozhin said, addressing Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

"Please do not give up the flanks."

The Russian defence ministry has acknowledged some withdrawals from positions near Bakhmut over the past week but denies Prigozhin's assertions that flanks are crumbling, or that it has withheld ammunition from Wagner.

FALLING INTO 'THE MOUSETRAP'

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Russia had pushed reservesinto Bakhmut and battles had raged in its northern and southern suburbs all day. But the Russians had been repelled and her forces had advanced, by her estimate by about a kilometre in some areas.

"We are buying time for certain planned actions," Maliar said on her Telegram channel. Reuters could not confirm her account.

Kyiv says its tactic around Bakhmut is to draw Russian forces into the city, so as to weaken Russia's front line defences elsewhere ahead of Kyiv's planned counterassault.

"Wagner troops climbed into Bakhmut like rats into a mousetrap," Oleksander Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, told troops at the Bakhmut front in video he released this week on social media.

"Using the principle of active defence, we resort to counteroffensive actions in some directions near Bakhmut. The enemy has more resources, but we are destroying his plans."

With Kyiv's counteroffensive looming, Russia has resumed missile and drone strikes across Ukraine this month after a near two-month lull. Waves of attacks now come several times a week, the most intense pace of the war.

On Thursday, air raid sirens sounded overnight, black smoke filled the sky over Kyiv and one person was reported killed in the southern city of Odesa. Ukraine said it shot down 29 of 30 incoming missiles. Moscow claimed to have hit military targets.

Russia has also been experiencing attacks and explosions both in Ukrainian territory it controls and in Russian territory near the border. Officials in Russian-occupied Crimea reported a freight train had been derailed overnight by "interference". Kyiv never confirms any role in incidents there.

On the diplomatic front, leaders of the G7 group of big developed countries were meeting in Japan where they are expected to unveil tighter measures to close off Russia's opportunities to bypass financial sanctions.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Japan's Fumio Kishida met for talks in Hiroshima, aiming for closer cooperation in the face of both an unpredictable Russia and ascendant China.

A U.S. Senate aide and a defence official said on Thursday the Pentagon had overvalued U.S. equipment it sent to Ukraine by around $3 billion, an error that opens up the possibility of more weapons being sent to Kyiv.

On Wednesday, Moscow agreed to a two-month extension of a deal safeguarding exports of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports despite the war. Russia had threatened to abandon the deal unless it received additional guarantees protecting its own grain and fertiliser exports.

However, a Ukrainian official said the corridor had not yet resumed, while Russia said more progress was needed to advance its interests.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine has ‘five months left’ to impress US – FT

Ukraine has five months to demonstrate some “advances” to the US and other Western backers, to convince them of its plans for the conflict with Russia, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing several European and American officials.

Washington is entering an election cycle and has to show that the massive military support the US and its allies have been providing to Ukraine has not been in vain, the paper also said.

“It is important for America to sell this war as a successful one, as well as for domestic purposes to prove that all of those aid packages have been successful in terms of Ukrainian advances,” a European official told the FT.

The polls show that public support for Ukraine is waning in the US, and President Biden’s administration has to show that the tens of billions of dollars it spent on assistance for Kiev made a major difference on the frontlines, the media outlet said.

According to FT sources, Washington believes the next five months are critical to the outcome of the conflict. “If we get to September and Ukraine has not made significant gains, then the international pressure on [the West] to bring them to negotiations will be enormous,” another source told the FT, on condition of anonymity.

September will see the UN General Assembly and G20 leaders’ summit take place one after another. Both events could be used to make the warring parties sit down at a negotiating table, FT said.

Western military support for Kiev is also about to reach its limits, the sources warned. “The message [to Kiev] is basically that this is the best you’re going to get,” a European official told the paper. “There’s no more flexibility in the US budget to keep writing checks, and European arms factories are running at full capacity.”

The US continues to be Ukraine’s biggest backer when it comes to arms supplies. Washington’s allies are concerned about its capacity to maintain that support and expect it to decrease in 2024 amid a US presidential election. “We can’t keep the same level of assistance forever,” a European official said, adding that the current level of support might be sustained for a year or two but no longer.

** US wants to ‘freeze’ Ukraine conflict – Politico

The administration of US President Joe Biden is reportedly considering ‘freezing’ the conflict in Ukraine for the foreseeable future, instead of pushing for the country’s victory, according to sources cited by Politico on Thursday.

Three serving and one former US official told the outlet that a long-term low-intensity stand-off was currently being discussed in the White House.

The former official compared the possible scenario to how the Korean War of the early 1950s ended in an armistice. There was no formal peace agreement, with both Pyongyang and Seoul claim sovereignty over the entire Korean Peninsula and a demilitarized zone separating the two parts.

“A Korea-style stoppage is certainly something that’s been discussed by experts and analysts in and out of government,” the source said. “It’s plausible, because neither side would need to recognize any new borders and the only thing that would have to be agreed is to stop shooting along a set line.”

The benefits for the US would be that a frozen conflict would be less costly for Western nations and draw less public attention, and consequently less pressure to assist Kiev, the outlet explained.

Ukraine would still be allied with Washington and continue switching its military to NATO standards, as it seeks to join the bloc someday.

The ‘Korean scenario’ for Ukraine drew media attention in January, after Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of the country’s national security council, claimed in an interview that Moscow had sent a top official to European capitals to promote it.

The Kremlin denied the reports and claimed Danilov may have mistaken a Ukrainian politician surnamed Kazak for his namesake in the Russian government, whom he identified as the messenger.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, argued that Danilov’s words were meant for “domestic consumption,” so that the Ukrainian government could measure the public reaction to it. The Russian official mused that “being split is the best-case scenario,” for Kiev, under the circumstances.

Moscow called NATO’s expansion in Europe and its creeping takeover of Ukraine without its formal accession as one of the key reasons for sending troops against its neighbor. The conflict, Russia has maintained, is part of a US proxy war against it, in which Ukrainians serve as cannon fodder.

** Russian forces wipe out Ukrainian arms, ammo depots with precision weapons

Russian forces hit Kiev’s large foreign equipment and armament depots and army reserves with seaborne and air-launched precision weapons, destroying substantial weapon and ammunition stockpiles during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Thursday.

"Last night, Russian forces delivered multiple strikes by seaborne and air-launched long-range high-precision weapons against large foreign armament and equipment depots and enemy reserves. The goal of the strikes was achieved. All the designated targets were hit. The strikes destroyed considerable stockpiles of the Ukrainian army’s armaments and ammunition and thwarted the advance of reserves to the areas of combat operations," the spokesman said.

Russian forces eliminate 60 Ukrainian troops in Kupyansk area

Russian forces destroyed roughly 60 Ukrainian troops, two armored vehicles and a howitzer in the Kupyansk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

Combat aircraft and artillery from Russia’s western battlegroup struck the enemy units in areas near the settlements of Novomlynsk and Kotlyarovka in the Kharkov Region, the spokesman specified.

"The enemy’s losses in that direction in the past 24 hours totaled 60 Ukrainian personnel, two armored combat vehicles, two motor vehicles and a D-20 howitzer," the general reported.

Units of the Russian army’s 138th and 27th motorized infantry brigades neutralized two enemy subversive/reconnaissance groups by their active operations, the spokesman added.

Russian forces destroy over 75 Ukrainian troops in Krasny Liman area

Russian combat aircraft and artillery struck Ukrainian army units in the Krasny Liman area, destroying over 75 enemy troops in the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the Krasny Liman direction, operational/tactical and army aviation and artillery from the battlegroup Center inflicted damage on the Ukrainian army’s personnel and equipment in areas near the settlements of Ploshchanka and Kuzmino in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.

In all, "over 75 Ukrainian personnel, a tank, four armored combat vehicles, two pickup trucks and a D-30 howitzer were destroyed" in that direction in the past 24 hours, the general reported.

Russian forces eliminate two Ukrainian subversive groups in LPR

Russian forces eliminated two Ukrainian subversive groups in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"Units of the 98th air assault division eliminated two subversive/reconnaissance groups near the settlement of Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.

Russian forces destroy 200 Ukrainian troops, mercenaries in Donetsk area

Russian forces destroyed roughly 200 Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries in the Donetsk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"The enemy’s losses in that direction amounted to 200 Ukrainian personnel and mercenaries, a tank, three armored combat vehicles, five motor vehicles and two Gvozdika motorized artillery systems," the spokesman said.

Russian assault teams continue battles for Artyomovsk

Russian assault teams continued battles for Artyomovsk in the Donetsk area with the paratroopers’ support over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"In the Donetsk direction, the assault teams continued the battles for the liberation of Artyomovsk with the active support of Airborne Force units. Operational/tactical and army aviation and artillery from the southern battlegroup struck the enemy manpower and equipment in areas near the settlements of Chasov Yar and Bogdanovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.

During the last 24-hour period, aircraft flew seven sorties in that area. The battlegroup’s artillery accomplished 72 firing objectives, the general specified.

Kiev suffers 150 casualties in southern Donetsk, Zaporozhye areas

Russian forces killed and wounded roughly 150 Ukrainian troops and destroyed two enemy artillery guns in the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

Aircraft and artillery of Russia’s battlegroup East struck the Ukrainian army units near Ugledar in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the spokesman specified.

"The enemy’s losses amounted to 150 Ukrainian personnel killed and wounded, five motor vehicles, a Strela-10 anti-aircraft missile launcher, an FH70 howitzer and a US-made M777 artillery system," the general reported.

Russian forces destroy 35 Ukrainian troops in Kherson area

Russian forces destroyed roughly 35 Ukrainian troops and an armored vehicle in the Kherson area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"Over 35 Ukrainian personnel, an armored combat vehicle and three motor vehicles were destroyed in the Kherson direction in the past 24 hours as a result of damage inflicted by firepower," the spokesman reported.

Russian combat aircraft down Ukrainian Su-24 frontline bomber in DPR

Russian combat aircraft shot down a Ukrainian Su-24 frontline bomber near Slavyansk in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"Fighter aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down a Ukrainian Air Force Su-24 plane near the settlement of Slavyansk in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.

Russian air defenses down Mi-8 helicopter in Ukraine operation

Russian air defense forces shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter, intercepted four HIMARS and Uragan rockets and destroyed 11 enemy drones over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"Air defense capabilities shot down a Ukrainian Air Force Mi-8 helicopter near the settlement of Novopavlovka in the Zaporozhye Region. During the last 24-hour period, they intercepted four rockets of the HIMARS and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems," the spokesman said.

In addition, Russian air defense systems destroyed 11 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Pologi and Romanovskoye in the Zaporozhye Region, Gorlovka, Peski, Blagodatnoye and Volodino in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Nikolayevka, Novovodyanoye and Kremennaya in the Lugansk People’s Republic, the general specified.

Russian forces strike 68 Ukrainian artillery units in past day

Russian combat aircraft struck 68 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions and destroyed a US-made counter-battery radar over the past day, Konashenkov reported.

"During the last 24-hour period, operational/tactical and army aviation and artillery of the Russian group of forces struck 68 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 97 areas," the spokesman said.

"In the area of the settlement of Krivaya Luka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, an AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar was obliterated," the general reported.

In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 428 Ukrainian combat aircraft, 234 helicopters, 4,208 unmanned aerial vehicles, 423 surface-to-air missile systems, 9,218 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,100 multiple rocket launchers, 4,843 field artillery guns and mortars and 10,284 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov reported.

Reuters/RT/Tass