MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/. Russian forces eliminated over 40 Ukrainian troops and five pieces of equipment in the Kupyansk area in the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"In the Kupyansk area, units of Battlegroup West, backed by attack and army aircraft and artillery forces, defeated the units of the 14th, 21st and 92nd mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces near Timkovka and Terny in the Kharkov Region and Stelmakhovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic. The enemy lost over 40 troops, an infantry fighting vehicle, two armored combat vehicles and two motor vehicles," the statement reads.