MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Assault units of the battlegroup West have captured a Ukrainian strongpoint, four dugouts and killed more than 40 servicemen during the offensive in the Kupyansk area, the battlegroup’s spokesman, Yaroslav Yakimkin, told TASS.

"In the course of combat operations in the Kupyansk area, the assault units of the battlegroup West continued the offensive in the direction of the Olshana settlement. They captured a strongpoint, four dugouts with personnel and took out more than 40 enemy soldiers," Yakimkin said.

According to the spokesman, during the same day, the enemy units of the 14th and 115th Separate Mechanized Brigades and the 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade conducted five counterattacks on the positions of Russian troops, using armored vehicles.

"All counterattacks were successfully repulsed, and the enemy's losses from artillery and mortar fire amounted to up to a platoon of personnel and one infantry fighting vehicle," Yakimkin said.