Russia says airstrikes destroy tanks supplied by Ukraine

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Russia says airstrikes destroy tanks supplied by Ukraine

Moscow has said heavy weaponry was hidden in railcar repair facilities.

Russian airstrikes destroyed foreign-supplied tanks in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Moscow said on Sunday.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, a defense ministry spokesman, said that Russian forces carried out airstrikes on the outskirts of Kiev, destroying the T-72 tanks and other armored vehicles supplied by Eastern European countries and kept in railcar repair facilities. The spokesman did not specify where the tanks came from, but Poland previously said it had donated T - 72 tanks to Ukraine.

Konashenkov said that military targets were also hit in Donbass, as well as eastern and southern Ukraine, including multiple rocket launchers and a US-made mobile counterfire radar.

Ukraine's General Staff reported earlier that Kiev was among the areas hit by Russian forces. One person was hospitalized, according to Vitali Klitschko.

On Saturday night, the Donetsk authorities said Ukrainian troops shelled the city, killing five civilians and wounding 20.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling residential areas and killing civilians.

In late February, Russia attacked the neighboring state after Ukraine failed to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied that it plans to retake the two republics by force.