Enemy assaults Sievierodonetsk, wants to encircle Lysychansk - Ministry of Defense

Oleksandr Motuzianyk, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said this at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center - Ukrinform.

"Reaching the administrative borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, keeping a land corridor with the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula and blocking Ukraine's maritime communications in the northwestern part of the Black Sea remains the main goal of the occupiers. In order to keep the land corridor between the Rostov region and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the enemy continues to create the second and third lines of defense in the Southern Buh direction, equips positions, increases the firepower of troops in the Slobozhanshchyna direction, removes equipment from storage and transfers reserves from Russian territory," Motuzianyk said.

According to him, in the Donetsk direction, Ukraine's Armed Forces are holding off the enemy's offensive. Russian forces, with the support of aviation, focused on capturing the city of Sievierodonetsk, surrounding Lysychansk and reaching the administrative border of the Luhansk region.

"In order to inflict losses and deplete the personnel of our troops, the enemy is firing along the entire line of contact, using mortars, artillery and MLRS," Motuzianyk added.

According to him, over the past 24 hours, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukrainian defenders have repelled nine enemy attacks, destroying two tanks, 13 artillery systems, eight armored fighting vehicles and six enemy vehicles.

In the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv, Russian forces lost about 70 troops, Motuzianyk said.