Ukraine mounts losses on multiple fronts amid fragile counteroffensive
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The interim head of the DPR says Ukrainian shelling on the region killed two civilians and injured five teenagers.
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A Russian tank T-72B3 fires as troops take part in drills at the Kadamovsky firing range in the Rostov region in southern Russia, January 12, 2022 (AP)
The Russian Ministry of Defense published a video on Thursday showing a Russian T-80 tank destroying an American-made Bradley fighting vehicle operated by Ukrainian forces.
The ministry confirmed that "artillery units succeeded in destroying targets at long distances outside the range of direct vision, using coordinates obtained through the use of drones," noting that the distance of fire was around 9.5km along the Kupyansk front in the Kharkov region.
Russian forces also destroyed observation posts, warehouses, and foreign military equipment, as per the statement.
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Sputnik quoted a member of the Russian combat tank units as saying that the Ukrainian targets were "widely varied, including bunkers, trenches, communication systems and equipment."
In the Donetsk Region, the head of the Russian Battlegroup South press, Vadim Astafyev, told the agency that "the group's artillery destroyed the strongholds of two brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the regions of Kalinovka and Avdeevka."
Three 120-mm mortars were destroyed on the Mariinsky axis, and units operating the Solntsepyok heavy flamethrower systems targeted Ukrainian forces gathered at the outposts of Malaya town in Kalinovka, according to Astafyev.
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Within 24 hours, Ukraine's military attacked areas in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) 34 times, firing 196 shells, according to a statement by the DPR representative in the Joint Center for the Control and Coordination of Issues Related to War Crimes by Ukraine.
The Interim head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that the Ukrainian shelling killed two people and left others wounded, many of which are teenagers.
"According to preliminary data, fire from Ukrainian armed formations on the Kirovsky District of Donetsk killed two people and inflicted wounds of various severity to eight more civilians, including five children - girls with dates of birth in 2008, 2009, 2005 and 2009 - and a teenage boy born in 2006," he said on Telegram.
In addition to civilian infrastructure in Yasinovataya and a school in the Petrovsky District of Donetsk, Pushilin also said that a number of homes were damaged by the artillery rounds.
Read more: Russian forces destroy Storm Shadow missile depot in western Ukraine
Earlier this month, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson told Sputnik that over half of the Ukrainian troops who have attempted to advance towards the south Donetsk direction as part of the counteroffensive were lost.
The spokesperson added that two attacks in the direction of Ravnopol were neutralized and an attempt to conduct reconnaissance by force in the Zaporozhye direction was thwarted.
‼️🇷🇺The Russian army destroys enemy armored groups, repelling the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the South-Donetsk direction
— Zlatti71 (@djuric_zlatko) June 13, 2023
💥 UAV crews revealed the advancing of an enemy armored group under the cover of a forest belt. As a result of accurate fire from Russian… pic.twitter.com/NIfXEsiFKu
