KIEV, August 24 /ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian army has lost five servicemen in its military operation in the country’s east in the past 24 hours and another eight have been wounded, spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Andriy Lysenko said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the army of the Donetsk People’s Republic has reported that self-defense fighters have destroyed over 150 Ukrainian troops, four Smerch multiple launch rocket systems, 12 Grad rocket launches, 17 tanks, over 30 combat armored vehicles and about 50 vehicles with ammunition in their counter-offensive in the last two days.
The Donetsk militias have also said they have seized seven depots with a large amount of ammunition, material supplies, and also food expropriated by the Ukrainian National Guard from the local population in its “mopping-up operation,” as well as off-road vehicles.
The army of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has also completely blocked a large grouping of Kiev’s military forces in six republican settlements, the self-defense militia reported earlier on Sunday.
“Around 5,000 servicemen with weapons and around 50 tanks, more than 200 combat armored vehicles, about 50 multiple launch rocket systems Grad and Uragan, more than 100 artillery guns and mortars have been blocked in the trap,” the militia headquarters said.
The eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been the scene of fierce clashes between troops loyal to Kiev and local militias as the Ukrainian armed forces are conducting a military operation to regain control over the breakaway territories, which on May 11 proclaimed their independence at local referendums and now call themselves the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics.