Most of the Ukrainian troops participating in the counter-offensive feint was destroyed in the vicinity of the village of Berdin, says a statement of the Ministry of Defense (Mindef).

In order to destroy Russian forces involved in the Kursk fighting, Ukrainian assault groups attempted to break through in that direction through the village of Bolshoe Soldastkoe, the Mindef note stresses.

With aviation and artillery support, the units of the Northern force grouping prevented the attempted counter-offensive of the Ukrainian units, the military unit noted.

During the operation, the enemy lost 150 soldiers, 16 armored fighting vehicles, four tanks, two BMP tanks and one engineering vehicle, the military report said.

In its turn, the Western group managed to seize control of the town of Kurakhovo, which is of strategic importance for the movement of forces and logistics in the southern part of Donetsk, the Mindef stresses.

Our fighters established the Russian tricolor flag over the town of Kurakhovo, said a commander of the unit of the 5th independent motorized brigade in charge of seizing the town, quoted RIA Novosti agency.

The aforementioned Ukrainian town is the most populated in the south of Donetsk and opens wide possibilities for the forces’ offensive in that region which in 2022 passed to Russian jurisdiction, after a referendum, together with Lugansk.

On February 24, 2023, President Vladimir Putin ordered a war operation to protect the population of Donetsk and Lugansk, whose population denounced a genocide by Kiev for eight years, as well as to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.

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