MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. Russian forces thwarted a Ukrainian army attempt to conduct reconnaissance by fire near the settlement of Yakovlevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Spokesman for Russia’s Battlegroup South Vadim Astafyev reported on Tuesday.

"Units of the southern battlegroup frustrated an attempt to rotate troops at the forward positions of the Ukrainian army’s 81st air mobile brigade near the settlement of Belogorovka and 54th mechanized brigade near the community of Zolotaryovka. The enemy also sustained heavy manpower and military hardware losses as a result of its failed attempt to conduct reconnaissance by fire near the settlement of Yakovlevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.

Special operations forces from Russia’s Southern Military District uncovered enemy sites in the Avdeyevka area and transmitted target coordinates to an artillery formation from the 8th combined arms army, the spokesman said.

"As a result, three infantry groups, a dugout and a pickup truck of the Ukrainian army were destroyed," Astafyev reported.

The team of a 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled artillery system from the battlegroup’s motor rifle division wiped out a command post belonging to a battalion of the Ukrainian army’s 79th separate air assault brigade near the settlement of Paraskoviyevka, the spokesman said.