MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. Russian forces destroyed over 10 Ukrainian troops and a grenade launcher in artillery battles in the south Donetsk area over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Spokesman for Russia’s Battlegroup East Oleg Chekhov told TASS on Wednesday.

"Artillery Platoon Commander Lieutenant Marat Osanov from the Battlegroup’s Motor Rifle Brigade accomplished the objectives of striking enemy sites at one of the frontline sections in the south Donetsk direction. During the battles, the artillery personnel commanded by Osanov managed to knock out two Ukrainian artillery guns under continuous barrages by Ukrainian troops and destroy a team of a tripod-mounted automatic grenade launcher and over ten militants," the spokesman said.

The battlegroup’s artillery also destroyed a Ukrainian Strela-10 surface-to-air missile system in the settlement of Antonovka and an ammunition depot in Konstantinovka, he added.

"Artillery fire destroyed a Strela-10 anti-aircraft missile system of the Ukrainian army in Antonovka, an ammunition depot in Konstantinovka, two Nazis’ strongholds north of Nikolskoye, armored combat vehicles with militants near Zelyonoye Pole and a US-made counter-battery radar station near Nikolskoye," the spokesman said.

The Russian battlegroup’s aircraft struck Ukrainian manpower and military hardware in areas near the settlements of Velikaya Novosyolka, Staromayorskoye and Urozhainoye, he said.

"The teams of Tor and Osa air defense systems shot down two Furia aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles and one Valkyrie [UAV]," the spokesman said.