MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. Russia’s Battlegroup East has thwarted two attempted rotations of Ukrainian troops in the south Donetsk area, the battlegroup’s spokesman Oleg Chekhov told TASS on Thursday.

"In the south Donetsk area, units of the Battlegroup East, supported by artillery, thwarted two attempted rotations of Ukrainian forces near Ugledar and to the north of Novodonetsk. A Ukrainian subversive group was eliminated by the artillery fire to the north of the Priyutnoye settlement," he added.

"In the south Donetsk direction, active operations by units of the battlegroup East, assault and army aircraft strikes and artillery fire inflicted damage on manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 72nd mechanized, 79th air assault, 58th motorized infantry, 128th territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Novomikhailovka, Urozhainoye, Shevchenko, Ugledar, Vodyanoe and Staromayorskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic as well near the settlement of Priyutnoye in the Zaporozhye Region," Chekhov stated.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in the south Donetsk area over the past 24 hours amounted to 140 Ukrainian personnel, three armored combat vehicles, he specified.