Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister says Russia is conducting active offensive actions in the Lyman and Kupiansk directions, having reinforced its units in the east and “trying to seize the initiative from us.”
According to her, Russians haven’t abandoned their plans to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and these directions are now main in Russian offensive activities.
“High activity of enemy shelling is recorded. Hot battles continue,” Maliar wrote, adding that Ukrainian troops are “acting courageously in the face of the enemy’s superiority in forces and means and are not allowing the enemy to advance.”
The cities of Lyman and Kupiansk were liberated during the Ukrainian Kharkiv counter-offensive last fall. They are located in the area of Kharkiv Oblast’s east and southeast, where Luhansk, Donetsk, and Kharkiv oblasts converge.
The Ukrainian military destroyed a Russian T-72 tank, an outdated T-62 tank, a self-propelled gun, a Lantset loitering munition, and two vehicles in the Lyman and Kupiansk directions over the past 24 hours, according to Eastern Group of Forces spokesman Serhii Cherervatyi. He says the Russians tried to assault the Ukrainian positions two times, used 555 artillery shells, and carried out five air strikes.
Read also:
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- Russian artillery strike kills a father and son in northeastern Ukraine
- Russia resumes offensive in Bakhmut sector – Ukraine’s General Staff
- Frontline report: Ukrainian forces break through Russian lines in Bakhmut
- Ukrainian forces advance on southern front and near Bakhmut, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister says
