MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. Over the past 24 hours, servicemen from the Battlegroup West repelled a counterattack by a Ukrainian armed forces brigade attempting to break through to Kupyansk, near the village of Osinovo in the Kharkov region, Ivan Bigma, head of the battlegroup's press center, reported.

"In the Kupyansk direction, over the past 24 hours, units of the 6th Army repelled a counterattack by units of the 1st Brigade of the National Guard near the village of Osinovo. Five militants and two pickup trucks were destroyed," he said.

Bigma also reported that in the battlegroup's area of responsibility, a HIMARS rocket, 26 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, and 29 heavy combat quadcopters were shot down in the past 24 hours. In addition, the troops destroyed two mortars, 10 ground-based robotic systems, 53 UAV control centers, and a Starlink satellite communications station.