MOSCOW, January 8. /TASS/. Motor rifle units of the Russian Battlegroup West thwarted four attacks of Ukrainian army assault teams in the Kupyansk direction, Battlegroup Spokesman Sergey Zybinsky told TASS.

"Motor rifle units, supported by artillery fire, thwarted two attacks of assault teams of 32nd and 115th mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the Lake Liman in the defense area of the combined arms army. The adversary had to retreat southwestward. Furthermore, motor riflemen of the combined arms army supported by army aviation and artillery repelled two attacks of assault teams reinforced with armored vehicles of the 95th airborne assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Terny - Zhitlovka direction," the spokesman said.

The Ukrainian army lost more than fifty servicemen, two CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles and a M113 armored personnel carrier in this direction, Zybinsky noted. Tor SAM system crews destroyed two Furiya reconnaissance drones.