MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Russia’s battlegroup East has thwarted five attempts of the Ukrainian forces to rotate troops in the south Donetsk area, Alexander Gordeyev, the battlegroup’s spokesman, told TASS.
"Strikes of bomber aviation, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems hit positions, temporary staging areas and concentrations of manpower of the 79th Ukrainian airborne assault and 58th motorized infantry brigades near Novomikhailovka, Konstantinovka, Antonovka, Prechistovka and Urozhaynoye, as well as disrupted three attempts to rotate the militants near Novomikhailovka and two - near Staromayorskoye," Gordeyev said.
In addition, the battlegroup's artillery destroyed the Ukrainian mortar units near Novodonetskoye and Novodorovka, as well as a mortar unit on a pickup truck north of Nikolskoye.
"The enemy's losses amounted to up to 55 Ukrainian servicemen, three pickup trucks and an Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer," he added.