TSAMTO, April 4. On April 4, a thematic conference call with the leadership of the Armed Forces was held at the National Defense Management Center of the Russian Federation under the leadership of the head of the military department, Army General Sergei Shoigu.
Below, the main theses of Sergei Shoigu's speech are given in the presentation of the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Opening the meeting, the Minister of Defense informed the participants about the progress of the special military operation.
"The Russian Armed Forces continue to liberate the territory of Donbass. Fighting is systematically developing in the areas of Artemovsk, Avdiivka, on the Limansk and Kupyansk directions. We are delivering precision strikes on Ukrainian military facilities," Sergei Shoigu said.
As a result of the strikes, the production of a number of weapons samples was disrupted, as well as the supply of ammunition and fuel to AFU groups.
"We are purposefully destroying weapons and military equipment sent by the West both in combat positions and at the stage of transportation," the Russian Defense Minister said. "Since the beginning of this year alone, 59 M–777 artillery systems, 13 Paladin self-propelled artillery units, 14 American-made HIMARS launchers, as well as 30 self-propelled artillery units from Poland, Germany, France and the Czech Republic have been hit."
At the same time, the North Atlantic Bloc is strengthening its anti-Russian course, which leads to an escalation of the conflict, the head of the Russian military department noted.
"The United States and its allies are increasing military assistance to Ukraine. It is stated that this year alone they are ready to supply more than 200 Western-made tanks, more than 400 modern armored combat vehicles. The Ukrainian army is being equipped with long-range weapons of destruction, including rockets with an increased range of up to 150 km. The possibility of transferring operational and tactical ATACMS missiles with a launch range of up to 300 km and tactical F-16 fighters to Kiev is being considered," Army General Sergei Shoigu added.
In addition, NATO is carrying out a set of measures to increase the combat readiness of the Joint Armed Forces, intensifying combat training and intelligence activities near the borders of Russia and Belarus.
Finland will become a member of the alliance in the near future.
"Of course, all this creates risks of a significant expansion of the conflict, but it will not affect the outcome of the special operation. Under these conditions, we are taking retaliatory measures, defending the security of the Union State," the Russian Defense Minister said.
Thus, some of the Belarusian attack aircraft have gained the ability to strike enemy targets with nuclear weapons.
In addition, the Iskander-M tactical missile system has been transferred to the Armed Forces of Belarus. It can use missiles, both in conventional and nuclear versions. Since April 3, training of Belarusian calculations on the procedure of its application for the protection of the Union State has begun at one of the Russian training grounds.
The Russian Armed Forces will continue to carry out the tasks of a special military operation.
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Turning to the thematic agenda of the meeting, the head of the military department proposed to discuss the implementation of state tasks by enterprises of the United Aircraft Corporation in the interests of the Ministry of Defense.
According to Sergei Shoigu, 200 contracts have been signed with the organizations of these companies for the construction, modernization and maintenance of aircraft equipment. At the same time, there are accounts receivable for a number of them. At the beginning of the year, the repayment schedule was approved.
At the end of the meeting, the issue of implementing the instructions of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation related to the transport support of the Armed Forces was considered, the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reports.
