Ukrainian forces foiled a massive Russian armoured assault in the Donetsk region, inflicting heavy casualties and loss of equipment.
The ferocious battle took place near Vyymka in the Bakhmut district on the Siversk sector of the front and involved Ukraine’s 10th Mountain Assault Brigade.
The Russian assault group comprised over 120 soldiers and 22 armoured vehicles, including tanks.
They were spotted by aerial reconnaissance and came under sustained and heavy artillery fire and drone attacks.
Video images of the battle show Russian armoured vehicles being targeted and destroyed by kamikaze drones.
As Putin’s troops abandon their vehicles, a second wave of UAVs drops grenades on the feeling infantrymen.
The 10th Brigade said it destroyed six tanks and nine infantry fighting vehicles, as well as killing 19 Russians and injuring another 23.
Putin’s army continues to sustain heavy casualties as it seeks to make a decisive breakthrough before the onset of winter.
In the latest frontline update, Kyiv says the Russians lost another 1,300 soldiers over the past 24 hours.
Ukraine’s military claims that Russia has suffered a total of just over 700,000 casualties – including dead and injured – since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Despite the losses, Putin’s army continues to advance in Ukraine’s Donbas region as it closes in on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.
According to Bloomberg, Russia has advanced by 200 square kilometres (77 square miles) over the past week.
Colonel Ants Kiviselg, head of the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) Intelligence Centre, said the battlefield initiative was still very much with the Russians.
“Unfortunately, there is again nothing positive to report from the Ukrainian frontline this week,” he told a press conference last Friday.
“The Russian Federation’s forces are still holding the initiative along the entire front, which has forced the Ukrainian forces to gradually retreat.
“The Russian Federation’s armed forces have been most successful in capturing territory in Donetsk Oblast, in particular in the Pokrovsk, Kurakhove, Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka regions.”
