The pro-Russian Donetsk authorities announced that Russian forces have made significant progress in the Bakhmout region, and managed to take control of its entire industrial zone, while the Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 13 suicide drones that attacked the country from the north and southeast.
The TASS news agency reported that Russian forces in Pakhmot took full control of the industrial zone, and the pro-Russian Donetsk authorities confirmed that Russian forces were advancing in the Avdiivka axis.
They said that Ukrainian forces targeted the city and province of Donetsk with 75 shells of various calibers in the past 24 hours, causing material damage to about 20 residential buildings and infrastructure facilities.
In contrast, the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, General Alexander Sirsky, said that the Russians will not give up their attempts to seize Bakhmot, adding that the goal of the Ukrainian defenders is to drain "enemy forces."
Britain's military intelligence service said Russia lost many of its tanks during the attempted siege of Avdiivka in Donetsk, noting that Russia had made only marginal progress there.
British intelligence suggested in its series of tweets that the tenth tank regiment formed by Moscow in August 2022 to support its war on Ukraine lost a large percentage of its tanks while trying to besiege Avdiivka from the south.
Drone attack
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 13 suicide drones that attacked the country from the north and southeast, while an Al Jazeera correspondent reported that Ukrainian air defenses confronted targets in the sky of the capital Kiev.
The Ukrainian authorities also warned residents of an air danger in the regions of northern and southern Ukraine, and asked residents to stay in safe areas and not to ignore sirens.
The Ukrainian General Staff also said that Russian forces carried out 17 air strikes and launched more than 15 attacks on Ukrainian troop positions and civilian infrastructure in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The authority said in a statement that its defenses repelled more than 40 attacks by Russian forces in several directions, and noted that Russian forces continued their attack on the city of Bakhmot.
In the developments, the Ukrainian Air Force said that Russian attacks targeted Kherson at night with guided bombs fired from a Sukhoi 25.
Receive tanks
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said British Challenger 2 tanks and U.S. armored vehicles, as well as German combat vehicles, were at the disposal of Ukrainian forces.
Reznikov stressed in a statement that the new equipment will strengthen Ukrainian combat units and that his country will liberate all Ukrainian cities.
In a message posted on Facebook, Reznikov announced that "British Challenger, American Stryker, Cougar and German Marder tanks had joined the Ukrainian units."
The German magazine Der Spiegel also quoted unnamed sources as saying that Germany delivered to Ukraine 18 Leopard 2 tanks, which it pledged to provide support to Kiev.
About 40 German Marder infantry fighting vehicles arrived in Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin had delivered "very advanced" Leopard battle tanks to Kiev, while the defence ministry later put them at 18.