MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. A Ukrainian reconnaissance group was exposed and neutralized by the Russian eastern battlegroup in the southern Donetsk direction, with sixteen militants killed, the battlegroup’s spokesman Alexander Gordeyev said on Friday.

"In the southern Donetsk direction, two enemy reconnaissance by fire attempts against the eastern battlegroup’s position were thwarted. A reconnaissance group was exposed and neutralized by artillery fire. Sixteen militants were killed," he said in a video posted by the Russian defense ministry on its Telegram channel.

According to Gordeyev, Russian Uragan multiple rocket launchers, as well as Malka and Giatsint self-propelled guns hit 12 armored vehicles and cars belonging to the Ukrainian army and neutralized more than 20 militants near the settlement of Yelizavetovka.

"In the course of counterbattery fighting, a Zoopark artillery reconnaissance system spotted an enemy howitzer near the settlement of Dobrovolye and an Msta self-propelled gun destroyed it. An Osa-AKM air defense system downed a Leleka unmanned aerial vehicle," he added.

In the Zaporozhye area, a crew with a TOS-1 heavy flamethrower system delivered a strike on an enemy stronghold near the settlement of Malinovka, where more than ten militants were killed. "An Msta self-propelled gun destroyed an enemy US-made howitzer near the settlement of Preobrazhenka. A Tor air defense system downed a Fury drone, and an enemy Kazak armored vehicle was destroyed by a reconnaissance group near the settlement of Novoandreyevka," Gordeyev reported.