MOSCOW. Sept 20 (Interfax) - The Russian northern group of forces has thwarted four Ukrainian attempts to break through the Russian border towards two populated localities in the Kursk sector in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
"Four attempts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to break through the border of the Russian Federation towards Novy Put and Medvezhye have been thwarted with support of army aviation and artillery," the ministry said in a statement.
In that area, Ukrainian forces lost up to 60 troops killed or wounded, two tanks, including a Leopard, three CV-90 infantry vehicles, four armored combat vehicles, and a combat engineer vehicle, it said.
According to the ministry, units from the northern group of forces continued their offensive and hit detachments of eight Ukrainian brigades near Lyubimovka, Daryino, Zelyony Shlyakh, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Tolsty Lug, Malaya Loknya, and Plekhovo.
"In the past 24 hours, group units thwarted attempted counterattacks of the enemy towards Kremyanoye, Lyubimovka and Malaya Loknya. As a result, the Ukrainian Army lost up to 30 troops killed or wounded, two armored combat vehicles, a 2S1 Gvozdika artillery system, and three trucks," it said.