MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Russian forces repelled three Ukrainian attacks near Novomikhailovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic in the past day, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"In the south Donetsk area, units of Battlegroup East, acting in coordination with army aircraft and artillery forces, repelled three attacks by Ukraine's 79th Air Assault Brigade near Novomikhailovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic and inflicted a fire defeat on Ukrainian troops and equipment near Paraskoviyevka and Makarovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the statement reads.

The ministry added that the enemy had lost up to 65 troops, three pickup trucks, an Akatsiya and a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems and two D-30 howitzers in the area in the past day.