“Since the beginning of the day on December 24, 130 combat clashes have been recorded at the front, including massive attacks in Donetsk region and the Gulyaipil region. Russian troops carried out hundreds of shelling, airstrikes and drone attacks”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“The enemy launched one missile and 52 air strikes, used three missiles and dropped 118 guided air bombs. In addition, it used 3,274 kamikaze drones and carried out 3,015 attacks on populated areas and positions of our troops,” the summary reads as of 10:00 p.m.
More than half of the battles were recorded in three directions in the Donetsk region and in the Gulyaipil direction in the Zaporizhzhia region.
“In the direction of Kostyantynivka, today the occupiers stormed the positions of our defenders 14 times near the settlements of Kostyantynivka, Oleksandro-Shultine, Pleshchiivka, Sofiivka, Kleban-Bik, Rusyn Yar and in the direction of Ivanopil.
The enemy made 28 attacks in the Pokrovsky direction. The occupiers tried to advance near the settlements of Ivanivka, Rodynske, Chervyn Liman, Kotlyne, Udachne, Molodetske, Sukhetske, Myrnograd, Pokrovsk, Dachne, Filia and in the direction of Hryshyn. There is currently one battle going on.
In the Oleksandrivskyi direction, Ukrainian units stopped 12 attacks by the occupiers in the areas of Zeleny Gay, Oleksandrograd, Vyshneve, Rybne, Zlagoda, Krasnohirske and Privilne settlements.
In the Gulyaipil direction, Ukrainian defense forces repelled 19 attacks by the occupiers near the settlements of Solodke and Gulyaipole, one more battle has not yet been completed,” the message states.
Battles also continued in the North-Slobozhansk and Kursk, South-Slobozhansk, Kupyansk, Lymansk, Slavyansk and Dnieper directions.
Read also – ZSU: Defense forces are blocking the advance of Russian troops in the center of Pokrovsk
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.
Pokrovsk – a city with a population of about 1,250 people (estimated by the local authorities at the end of October, before the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation – more than 60,000) – is an important road and railway junction and was under threat of encirclement by Russian troops for most of the year.