Russia’s Battlegroup West repelled six counterattacks by Ukrainian troops in the Kupyansk area in the past day, the battlegroup’s spokesman Yaroslav Yakimkin told TASS on Thursday.

"In the Kupyansk area, forward units of the Battlegroup West repelled six enemy’s counterattacks <…>. The battlegroup’s warplanes delivered 15 strikes on the enemy manpower and vehicles," he said.

According to Yakimkin, Russian artillery and other heavy weapons wiped out three Ukrainian mortar positions near the settlements of Novoyegoryevka, Kulagovka, Tabayevka, and Stelmakhovka. "Air defense systems destroyed two unmanned aerial vehicles, Sinitsa and Leleka-100, near Sofiyevka and Zhiglovka. The enemy’s overall losses amounted up to two platoons," he added reports Russian news agency TASS.