Six Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 13 wounded in the antiterrorist operation (ATO) area in Donbas over the past 24 hours. Eight more were shell-shocked, the presidential administration’s spokesman for the ATO, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, said at a briefing on 24 July.
The front line from Zolote to Troyitske in Popasna District of Luhansk Region saw the hottest engagements. The enemy was pounding the ATO positions with mortars for seven hours, starting from 2 a.m. Kyiv time. From 8 a.m. to midday, the enemy used mortar fire as a cover for a direct attack on the ATO positions but had to retreat under return fire. The enemy requested artillery support and pulled tanks towards the front line. At about 4 and 6 p.m. the militants attacked ATO strongpoints twice but in vain. AT 4.15 p.m. the enemy stopped fire in this direction and redirected its efforts at the southeastern direction (the village of Kalynove).
In the Donetsk sector, after 1 a.m., the occupiers opened massive artillery fire in two directions at once, targeting Avdiyivka and Opytne. After the sunset, the enemy got active in the north, closer to the village of Novoselivka II where it used 120-mm mortars. After 7 p.m. it was hot at the Svitlodarsk salient and the industrial zone of Avdiyivka. The enemy used infantry fighting vehicles and 82-mm mortars prompting the ATO troops to return fire. The enemy violated a cease-fire several times in Troyitske, on the outskirts of Horlivka and the Butivka mine.
In the Mariupol sector, there were two engagements in Maryinka between 7 and 9 p.m. Both attacks were repelled. Massive fire attacks were registered in Krasnohorivka, Starohnativka, Chermalyk and along the Hnutove-Shyrokyne front line.
No-one was killed but six Ukrainian servicemen were wounded on 22 July.