Donetsk, Dec 21 — DAN. Russia has dramatically increased its combat capabilities as it fully meets the needs of its Air Force, Navy and land troops for all kinds of armaments, missiles and munitions, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday.

“More than 1,500 new or modernized tanks and some 3,000 armored fighting vehicles have been supplied to the armed forces this year, ” the Defense Ministry cited Gerasimov as saying at a briefing for foreign military attaches. “Russia’s aerospace forces received over 230 warplanes and helicopters, more than 80 variants of air defense and missile systems and more than 20,000 unmanned aerial vehicles of different types.”

 Despite the West’s attempts to isolate Russia in the international arena, the Defense Ministry continued to step up military cooperation with foreign counterpart agencies and carried out more than 600 important events this year, he said.

Earlier, Gerasimov disclosed details of Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive saying that about 1,500 control centers and key military facilities of the Ukrainian army were destroyed  over a year as part of the special military operation.*jk