MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. Russian forces repelled two Ukrainian army attacks in the Kupyansk area, destroying roughly 40 enemy troops over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday.

"In the Kupyansk direction, units of the western battlegroup repelled in their active operations with the use of air strikes, artillery and heavy flamethrower fires two attacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian army’s 54th mechanized brigade near the settlement of Zagoruikovka in the Kharkov Region. The enemy’s losses amounted to 40 personnel, two armored combat vehicles and three pickup trucks," the ministry said in a statement.

In counter-battery fire, Russian forces destroyed a US-made M777 artillery system, two Gvozdika motorized artillery guns and a D-30 howitzer, it said.

"Near the settlement of Staritsa in the Kharkov Region, an ammunition depot of the 113th territorial defense brigade was destroyed," it specified.