You're reading: Ukraine’s army repels major assault in Luhansk Oblast, heaviest clashes in 2017 reported

Fighting continued along the front line in eastern Ukraine on June 8, with serious clashes between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed forces being seen in Luhansk Oblast for a second day.

“The hostilities observed now have already exceeded the level of intensity seen in January-February 2017, during the battle of Avdiyivka,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on June 8.

Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian positions have been targeted by as many as 900 mortar shells, 130 artillery rounds and 25 tank rounds, Motuzyanyk said, adding that at least half of the artillery strikes were delivered some 2 kilometers southeast of the town of Krymske in Luhansk Oblast.

In that area, Russian-backed forces have been trying to capture Ukrainian army positions near the occupied town of Zhelobok, engaging heavy artillery, tank and mortar fire, the press service of Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade said on June 8.

All of the enemy assaults were successfully repelled, Ukraine’s military said. By 10 p.m. on June 7,  Russian-backed forces had lost at least 11 fighters killed in action, and another 14 were wounded, the Ukrainian military claimed. Russian-backed forced claimed the Ukrainian army had suffered similar losses.

Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade press service said on June 8 that “witnesses report about mobile hospitals, and flatbed trucks for the recovery of the dead, being deployed in the occupied city of Stakhanov (now called Kadiyivka).”

“Intense ambulance activity is also observed.” 

The Kyiv Post’s sources in Ukraine’s armed forces say after a day of very intense fighting, the 93rd brigade’s forward units have consolidated their defensive positions east and west of Zhelobok, establishing fire control over the P-66 road leading to occupied Luhansk some 45 kilometers to the east, and also surrounding the enemy stronghold in Zhelobok on three sides.

A Facebook post by the brigade dated June 8 also shows a combat banner of Russian-backed forces that the brigade says it captured the day before.

Fresh shelling and firefights were also recorded in hot spot areas near the occupied town on Debaltseve, as well as on the outskirts of Avdiyivka and to the northeast of Mariupol. Overnight into June 8, an elementary school in the city of Krasnohorivka just west of Donetsk was shelled, although no casualties there were reported by Ukraine’s military press service.

But at 1 p.m. on June 8, a residential area in Mariyinka was targeted by enemy fire, with one local female civilian being wounded by shell fragments, according to the Joint Center for Coordination and Control, a military liaison body for mediating peace in the region.

Over the last two days Ukrainian forces in Donbas have reported losing two servicemen killed in action, and 11 wounded.