Russian armed forces destroy ammunition plant in Kiev

Moscow, April 18 (IANS) Russia's forces have destroyed an ammunition plant in Ukraine's Kiev region, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

"During the night, high-precision air-based missiles destroyed an ammunition factory near Brovary (city) in the Kiev region," Ministry Spokesman, Igor Konashenkov told a daily briefing on Sunday.

He added that 29 militants, including foreign mercenaries, were eliminated during the rescue of Russian hostages from a mosque in Mariupol city in eastern Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Ministry said Russian forces have destroyed 134 aircraft, 249 anti-aircraft missile systems, 470 unmanned aerial vehicles, 2,290 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 254 multiple rocket launchers, 992 field artillery and mortars, and 2,166 units of special military vehicles belonging to the Ukrainian forces.

Kiev ordered the militants located on the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant, surrounded and blocked in Mariupol, to shoot those who want to lay down their arms, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defence, Major General Igor Konashenkov said.

"The Kyiv nationalist regime, according to radio interception, forbade negotiations on surrender," the general said, RT reported.

According to him, the Azov Nazis were ordered to shoot on the spot all those who wanted to lay down their arms from among the Ukrainian military and foreign mercenaries.

Earlier, Konashenkov said that the entire urban area of Mariupol was cleared of Ukrainian troops, the remnants of the group were blocked at the Azovstal plant.

The Russian Defense Ministry has called on the remaining Ukrainian forces, besieged at a steel plant in the coastal city of Mariupol, to lay down their arms, offering safety guarantees, if they accept the proposal and halt all hostilities on Sunday.

"Considering the catastrophic situation at the Azovstal metallurgical plant, and being guided by purely humane principles, the Russian Armed Forces offer militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries to stop hostilities and lay down their arms starting 6 a.m. Moscow time on April 17, 2022," the Russian Defence Ministry said.