Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that Russian forces fired high-precision missiles from the air at a training center for Ukrainian artillery forces, which are training in the use of American howitzers, in the Stetskovka region of Sumy province.
The Russian spokesman added that the Russian forces managed to neutralize 400 of what he called "Ukrainian nationalists", and to shoot down a military cargo plane transporting shipments of ammunition and weapons in the vicinity of Odessa.
For its part, the pro-Russian military separatist Luhansk authorities said that they had killed 27 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed 3 personnel carriers of Ukrainian forces in the region.
The pro-Russian authorities in Donetsk also announced the fall of 460 shells fired from Ukrainian territory on 13 districts of the province, killing a civilian and wounding 14 others.
Donetsk authorities said that Ukrainian artillery attacked the Kuibyshevsky district in the city center.
She added that the attack came from the Pesky area, which is controlled by the Ukrainian forces, and that the shells fell on residential buildings, causing casualties among civilians, without announcing the casualties in an initial toll.
blow up bridges
On the other hand, the governor of Lugansk said that Russia was blowing up bridges on the Seversky Donetsk River to prevent the Ukrainian army from bringing in military reinforcements and sending aid to civilians to Severodonetsk.
The Ukrainian official confirmed that the Ukrainian forces have regained about 20% of the lands they lost in the city.
Ukrainian officials also broadcast pictures showing the destruction inflicted on the city of Sloviansk, and Russian forces tried to storm a number of towns on the northern outskirts of the city from their positions in Lyman and Izyum, which are about 20 kilometers from the city center.
And Sergey Prachuk, a spokesman for the Odessa region's military command, announced that two people had been injured as a result of a cruise missile targeting a private facility.
In a parallel context, Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastirsky said late Friday evening that the intelligence services are in contact with the captured fighters who were at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, adding that Kyiv is doing its best to secure their release.
"Through it the intelligence services learn about the conditions of detention, nutrition and the possibility of their release... We all know that they will be here, in Kyiv. We are doing our best to do this," Monastirsky told Ukrainian television.
Russia said in May that nearly 2,000 Ukrainians had surrendered after their last attempt at resistance in the rubble of Mariupol, holding out for weeks in bunkers and tunnels under Azovstal steel plants.
Kyiv wants the fighters back in a prisoner exchange, and while some top Russian lawmakers have called for some soldiers to be prosecuted, the Kremlin said fighters who surrendered would be treated according to international standards.