Ukraine’s Alpha special forces have destroyed over £4 billion worth of Russian military equipment, which includes more than 1,500 tanks. The SBU force is one of the best-performing units in the Ukrainian army and celebrated its 31st anniversary last week.

Besides the tanks, the elite unit has wiped out almost 3,000 armoured vehicles, 2,655 artillery systems and shot down four helicopters – to mention but a few of its war trophies. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky last week attended the group’s 31st anniversary celebrations, awarding the unit with state honours.

He paid homage to the elite force’s singular achievements on the battlefield, telling the soldiers: “Only on your account and only since the full-scale invasion, the full-scale defence of our state, there is already more than US$5.5 billion worth of destroyed Russian military equipment – tanks, combat vehicles, electronic warfare systems, and other equipment.

“And this is without taking into account the results of your ‘Spiderweb’ operation.”

He added: “The special forces of the Security Service are consistently among the top three most effective units of our Defence and Security Forces of Ukraine in terms of destroyed equipment and enemy .”

In the last two weeks alone, the unit has destroyed 39 tanks, 14 air defence systems, and 17 ammunition depots.

SBU units attacked the Kirovsk military airfield in Crimea with drones over the weekend.

The attack destroyed Mi-8, Mi-26 and Mi-28 attack helicopters, and a Pantsyr-S1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile and gun system.

Local residents reported five or six explosions coming from the airfield as a fire broke out.

The fire quickly spread to cover a large area of the airbase, according to the Telegram channel Crimean Wind.

The channel wrote: “By two o’clock in the afternoon, the area of fires had increased significantly, and they had shifted toward the central part of the airfield.”

The social media channel later published video images of a large fire engulfing the base, which lit up the night’s sky.

Ukrainian drones also hit the Marinovka airfield in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Initial reports claim two SU-34 supersonic fighter-bombers were destroyed, while two more were damaged.