“Since the beginning of the day on December 26, 237 combat clashes have been recorded at the front, reports the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The fiercest battles are taking place in several directions in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, where the Ukrainian military is holding back numerous attacks by Russian forces”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“Since the beginning of the day, Russian invaders have attacked Ukrainian positions 31 times in the Lyman direction… Currently, Ukrainian defenders are repelling enemy attacks in two locations.
The Russians attacked the positions of the Defense Forces 21 times in the Konstantinov direction.
Since the beginning of the day, in the Pokrovsky direction, Russian units have tried to break through the Ukrainian defense 50 times. Three combat clashes continue until now.
In the Gulyaipil direction, our defenders stopped 21 attempts by the enemy to advance in the areas of Varvarivka, Sweetsky, and Gulyaipol,” the evening report says.
Fighting also continued in the North-Slobozhansk and Kursk, South-Slobozhansk, Kupyansk, Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Oleksandrivsk, and Orihiv directions.
On December 25, the spokesperson of the Southern Defense Forces reported on the fighting in the Gulyaipol area: Russian troops are trying to “infiltrate directly to the center of the city.” A difficult situation also continues in the Dobropill, Pryluk, and Varvarivka areas, located along the logistics route from Pokrovsky, Dnipropetrovsk region, to Gulyaipol.
On December 17, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that the enemy had increased the group to the number of about 710,000 soldiers in order to conduct a strategic offensive operation.
According to him, Russian troops have been trying to capture Pokrovsk for more than 17 months, but Ukrainian units are holding the defense and intercepting the initiative.