KEY POINTS

  • Ukrainian troops force Russians to retreat from Sosnivka and Bohorodichne
  • Ukrainian soldiers inflict heavy losses on Russian troops advancing to Bakhmut
  • More than 36,600 Russian soldiers have now died in the war, says Ukraine

The Ukrainian army’s defenses have once again forced Russian troops to retreat from their positions as the war progresses into its fifth month.

In a Facebook post, officials for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) said they prevented the Russian army’s attempts to advance toward the city of Sosnivka from the Slobozhansky direction and forced them to retreat.

The UAF General Staff added that Ukrainian troops successfully suppressed the Russian forces when they attempted to take over Bohorodichne. In the Bakhmut direction, Ukrainian soldiers managed to inflict heavy losses on the Russians, causing them to “retreat in panic.”

The UAF General Staff’s Thursday report comes after Ukrainian forces reportedly pushed back Russian forces conducting assault operations in areas across the Donetsk region and the southwestern city of Dolyna.

According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the estimated death toll among the Russians climbed to 36,650 Thursday from Wednesday’s 36,500. The ministry did not specify where the 150 new deaths occurred.

The Russian troops have taken control of Luhansk and are now trying to take over Donetsk. The provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk make up the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas.

Russians are expected to employ the same tactics they used to seize most of the Luhansk province, which is to deploy artillery and reduce the province to rubble.

"The battle for the Donbas has been characterized by slow rates of advance and Russia’s massed employment of artillery, leveling towns and cities in the process," the British Defense Ministry said in a statement. "The fighting in Donetsk Oblast will almost certainly continue in this manner."

Russia invaded Ukraine in February and called it a “special military operation” to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” the country. However, earlier setbacks in the invasion forced the Russians to change their goal from taking over the capital city of Kyiv to establishing control over the Donbas region.

Many of the Ukrainians who have swelled the ranks of the army following the invasion have received training in a forest previously occupied by Russian soldiers
Many of the Ukrainians who have swelled the ranks of the army following the invasion have received training in a forest previously occupied by Russian soldiers AFP / Sergei SUPINSKY
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