Russian troops today continued their attempts to regain the initiative in some sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine, while Kiev forces concentrated their attacks on enemy logistics routes in the south, which may be the preparations for a new phase of their counteroffensive.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Monday that in the last three days its troops managed to advance 3 kilometers in an 11 kilometer wide sector on the Kupiansk frontin northwestern Ukraine.
Russian aviation and artillery hammered Ukrainian troops in the towns of Kupiansk, Kotliarovka and Berestove, in the Kharkiv region, causing them about 110 casualtiessaid the spokesman for that ministry, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov.
“All of last week the east was the epicenter of the fighting. The Kupiansk axis (northeast) was the hottest of all. The enemy tried to recover the positions lost last autumn,” said the deputy minister of defense of Ukraine, Hanna Painterin statements to television.
According to Maliar, in the last seven days Russian troops spent in eastern Ukraine nearly half a million shells in about 9,000 bombardments.