DONETSK, September 18. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have withdrawn a substantial part of their troops from the area of Novodonetskoye settlement in the DPR to the rear, Yan Gagin, advisor to Donetsk People’s Republic acting head, told TASS.
"These ‘meat assaults’, which the Ukrainian armed forces have organized for their soldiers, failed to yield results. Our active defense led to heavy losses among the Ukrainian group in the area of Novodonetskoye. The enemy's activity at this section of the front has noticeably decreased, as the Ukrainian armed forces had to pull a significant part of the troops back from this area," Gagin said.
He also added that the Ukrainian battlegroup suffered heavy losses in unsuccessful attempts to breach the Russian defenses near Novodonetskoye. Gagin specified that the irreplaceable losses of the Ukrainian army in the southern Donetsk area amounted to several hundred people within a week of fighting.
On September 17, Oleg Chekhov, head of the press center for the battlegroup East, told TASS that Russian forces had thwarted an attempt to rotate Ukrainian units near Novodonetskoye.