Ukraine has fought off 36 Russian tanks in the western Donetsk region, according to a think tank, in what is believed to have been one of Moscow’s biggest armoured vehicle assaults of the war.
Citing a Ukrainian serviceman, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Kyiv’s forces repelled 36 tanks and 12 BMP infantry fighting vehicles as part of a Russian battalion-sized mechanised assault near the key town of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast on Saturday.
The ISW added that geolocated imagery shows a large number of destroyed and damaged Russian armored vehicles and tanks, with the Ukrainian serviceman reporting that Moscow lost at least 20 in the failed attack.
It comes as Kyiv’s military administration reported five hypersonic Zircon missiles are among the 180 weapons Russia has fired at the Ukrainian capital city since the start of this year.
Vladimir Putin’s forces launched 23 missile attacks and 61 airstrikes, as well as 41 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems, Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said. It said a total of 49 combat encounters took place along the frontline.