MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The Ukrainian reconnaissance groups were neutralized by units of the Russian Battlegroup East in the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas, the battlegroup’s spokesman Oleg Chekhov told TASS on Thursday.

"In the southern Donetsk area, forward units of the Battlegroup East, backed by artillery, neutralized a Ukrainian reconnaissance party west of Makarovka," he said, adding that another reconnaissance party and two enemy infantry groups were eliminated north of Priyutnoye in the Zaporozhye area.

Apart from that, a mortar and two tugged howitzers were destroyed in the settlements of Novoselka and Stepnogorsk. Artillery wiped out trucks with Ukrainian militants near the Oktyabr farm, armored vehicles and manpower northeast of Urozhainoye and near Staromayorskoye, and a mortar near Prechistovka.

The battlegroup’s aircraft hit Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles near Makarovka, Staromayorskoye, and Pavnopol, and a Ukrainian repair and evacuation vehicle northeast of Urozhinoye.

Apart from that, aerial reconnaissance means detected Ukrainian infantry groups, armored vehicles and tanks moving toward Rabotino. A tank and manpower were destroyed by artillery fire and an armored vehicle was hit from a Fagor anti-tank system, he added.