LUGANSK, August 23. /TASS/. A Russian military detachment has eliminated a Ukrainian sabotage group in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) that was planning to commit several terrorist attacks against officials on the eve of local elections, regional law enforcement officials told TASS.

"We have received operational information that at some point the enemy will deploy a sabotage group near the settlement of Spornoye to cross the line of engagement and later commit terrorist attacks against a number of officials on the eve of the elections. We've passed the information on to the Kuban detachment of the Bars-16 group, which foiled the enemy's attempt to cross the line of engagement and destroyed the [Ukrainian] servicemen with small arms and artillery fire," the source said.

The detachment’s commander told TASS that several dozen Ukrainian servicemen were killed. The detachment did not suffer any fatalities.

"We redeployed to the assigned area, prepared positions and started surveillance. When we saw the enemy, we came into fire contact, forcing them to retreat to their stronghold. Then we shelled the stronghold with thermobaric munitions, destroying the enemy," the commander said, adding that artillery also shelled the target. When the detachment left the area, it was shelled by Ukrainian servicemen from cluster munitions and mortars.