MOSCOW. Jan 23 (Interfax) - Units from the Russian central group of forces have improved their frontline positions in the Krasny Liman sector owing to active operations in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
"In the Krasny Liman sector, units from the central group of forces improved their frontline positions owing to successful active operations supported by artillery," the ministry said.
In that area, four attacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' 63rd Mechanized Brigade and the Fifth Ukrainian National Guard Brigade were repelled near Yampolovka in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) and the Serebyanskoye forest area, it said.
"The enemy lost over 220 troops, one tank, four trucks and two D-20 howitzers," the ministry said.
Meanwhile, in the Kupyansk sector, six attacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian 32nd, 66th and 81st Mechanized Brigades were repelled by units of the western group of forces supported by aircraft and artillery near Sinkovka and Tabayevka in the Kharkov region and Makeyevka in the LPR, the ministry said. The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 45 troops, two trucks and a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, it said.
"In the Donetsk sector, the combined efforts of units from the southern group of forces [and] aircraft and artillery struck troops and hardware of the Ukrainian 28th, 58th and 93rd Mechanized Brigades, the 81st Airmobile Brigade, and the Fifth Assault Brigade near Kurdyumovka, Grigorovka and Andreyevka in the DPR. The enemy lost over 280 troops killed or wounded, one tank, two infantry vehicles, six trucks, a D-30 howitzer, and an Anklav-N electronic warfare station," the ministry said.
In the southern Donetsk sector, units from the eastern group of forces hit detachments of the Ukrainian 79th Air Assault Brigade near Novomikhailovka in the DPR, the ministry said, adding that the enemy lost more than 105 troops, seven trucks, and an Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system.
"In the Zaporozhye sector, units from the Russian group of forces interacting with aircraft and artillery hit troops and hardware of the Ukrainian 65th and 118th Mechanized Brigades and the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade near Rabotino, Nesteryanka and Pyatikhatki in the Zaporozhye region. The enemy lost up to 55 troops, one tank, three pickup trucks, and a D-30 howitzer," the ministry said.
"In the Kherson region, the enemy lost up to 50 troops, two trucks and two Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems in a combined strike on units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the western bank of the Dnieper," it said.