With the Russian war on Ukraine entering its tenth week, the Southern Ukrainian Air Force Command announced that it had received an S-300 air defense system from a friendly country without disclosing it.

She added that the system significantly strengthened its air defenses in the southern region, after the Russian forces focused their offensive operations on the eastern and southern fronts, after they withdrew from the vicinity of the capital, Kyiv, weeks ago.

Western reports say that Ukraine had about 100 operating batteries of the S-300 system when Russia launched its war on its neighbor on February 24, but their number decreased due to the Russian attacks.

In the context of the growing Western support for the Ukrainian forces, Polish media said that Warsaw had delivered to Kyiv 200 T-72 tanks, in addition to dozens of armored vehicles.

Ukrainian losses

Ukraine admitted - on Friday - that it had incurred great losses as a result of the Russian attack on the eastern regions, as it indicated that it had lost a number of towns and villages since the start of the attack last week, but said that the Russian losses were heavier.

"We have suffered great losses, but the Russian losses are much greater," said Oleksiy Aristovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president.


And the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is bombing the entire front line in the Donetsk region (east of the country) with missiles, artillery, mortars and aircraft.

The Ukrainian General Staff said Russia was bombing positions along the line of contact to prevent the Ukrainians from regrouping.

Britain said fierce fighting took place in the vicinity of the cities of Lyschansk and Severodonetsk, the main part of the Donbass region that Russia is still trying to control.

Al-Jazeera correspondent stated that the Ukrainian forces are still in control of the northern Kherson region (southern of the country), days after Russia announced its control over all the borders of the region.

During a tour of the region, the reporter spotted Ukrainian reinforcements southeast of Mykolaiv, where several shells fell while he was trying to enter the Kherson province.

The bloodiest battle and the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the war took place in Mariupol - the coastal city in the east of the country - which was devastated by Russian bombing and siege for two months.

The Ukrainian president's office said an evacuation was planned on Friday to get civilians out of the huge Azovstal industrial complex in Mariupol, where hundreds of civilians are holed up in underground bunkers with the last Ukrainian forces defending the city.

Ukrainian authorities say that 100,000 civilians are still in the city, most of which are now controlled by Russian forces.

Kyiv bombing

In the capital, Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that emergency teams today recovered a body from under the rubble of an apartment building in the Shevchenkivsky district (west of the capital), which was bombed by the Russian army with two missiles on Thursday evening during the visit of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the city.

For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces destroyed missile and space industries facilities in Kyiv, and that the Russian Air Force targeted 112 Ukrainian military facilities, including 4 missile and artillery weapons depots.


Moscow also announced today that it had used a diesel-powered submarine in the Black Sea to strike Ukrainian military targets with Kalibr cruise missiles, which is the first time that the Russian military announced the use of its submarine fleet in bombing operations.

The Russian Defense Ministry released a video clip showing a barrage of Kalibr missiles launching from the sea and flying over the horizon towards what the ministry said were Ukrainian military targets.

On the other hand, the United Nations said that at least 2,899 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian war.

She also indicated - in a statement issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - that the number of refugees from Ukraine to neighboring countries reached 5 million and 429 thousand, more than half of them sought refuge in Poland.