The defenders have withdrawn from the village of Lastochkyne in Donetsk Region and are organising defences to prevent the occupiers from advancing. In general, in the area of the Tavriya operational and strategic grouping of troops, the Russians increased the number of air strikes and assault operations over the past day.
Russians attacked 45 times from the air, there were 72 combat engagements and 897 artillery attacks and 83 kamikaze drone strikes. Despite the Russian pressure, the Ukrainian defenders are actively defending themselves, said Dmytro Lykhoviy, spokesman for the Tavriya defence forces, via telethon.
The situation is most tense in the Avdiyivka and Maryinka sectors. In particular, defenders repelled 25 enemy attacks in the Avdiyivka sector and 40 in the Maryinka sector, the highest number of attacks in the last few days.
"At the same time, Ukrainian Armed Forces units withdrew from the village of Lastochkine to organise defence along the line of Orlivka-Tonenke-Berdychi settlements and prevent further advance of the enemy further west," said Lykhoviy.
Serhiy Tsehotskyy, an officer of the 59th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade named after Yakov Handzyuk, told Radio Liberty that the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces near the village of Lastochkino was correct and helped to exhaust Russian troops.
"There is no flee of our troops. There is a correct and competent withdrawal, exhaustion of the enemy. The enemy advances, and at the same time we destroy them [the Russian military] in large numbers, including destroying their equipment. This is the tactic of warfare, and it wins. There is no need to panic. The most important thing is to save the lives of the personnel. We will slowly destroy the enemy and prevent them from completing their tasks. Lastochkyne is our settlement, our land. But it is more important to win this war than to draw lines and put thousands of people there, as they did in Avdiyivka," said Sergey Tsekhotskyy.
- Yesterday, Lykhoviy said that fighting was taking place on the outskirts of Lastochkine, but the settlement was not occupied.