MOSCOW, May 4. /TASS/. Russian forces destroyed three Ukrainian subversive groups in the Kupyansk area and thwarted the rotation of enemy troops over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Spokesman for Russia’s Battlegroup West Sergey Zybinsky reported on Thursday.

"During combat operations in the Kupyansk direction, the personnel of the battlegroup West uncovered and destroyed in the past 24 hours three enemy subversive/reconnaissance groups from the 14th and 92nd mechanized brigades and thwarted two attempts by the Ukrainian military to rotate troops at forward positions near the settlements of Novomlynsk and Krakhmalnoye," the spokesman said.

In addition, Russian artillery operating in the defense area of the 6th combined arms army destroyed five enemy observation posts. Russian forces also destroyed a Ukrainian D-30 howitzer in the area of the settlement of Krasnoye Selo and an enemy mortar team on the eastern outskirts of the Mankovka secluded area, he added.

"Air defense forces delivered fire from a Tor-M2U anti-aircraft missile system, destroying a Ukrainian Furia reconnaissance drone near the settlement of Olshana," the spokesman said.