Ministry of Defense: In the south, Russia is losing 5.3 times more troops than Ukraine

The defense forces continue their offensive in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions. Fierce battles are going on everywhere — Ukrainian fighters are entrenched at the borders they have reached and clear the territory.

Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar says that due to significant losses of personnel in the South , the Russians are refusing to participate in hostilities.

According to Malyar, the ratio of irreversible losses there is 1 to 5.3.

The Ministry of Defense also reports that the Russians are continuing their offensive in the Avdiivka, Mariinka, Kupyansk, Lyman, and Svatove directions.

"The enemy is trying to break through our defenses. Unsuccessfully. Fierce battles continue everywhere without changing positions," Malyar emphasized and added that on the southern flank of the Bakhmut direction, there are advances in several areas to a depth of more than a kilometer.

On the northern flank of the battle without changing positions.

"The Russians are actually trapped in Bakhmut itself. Our troops made the movement of the enemy as difficult as possible and made it impossible to get out. Shelling continues from both sides," the deputy minister summed up.

• Over the past day, the Russian army lost approximately 510 soldiers, two tanks, 12 armored fighting vehicles, 20 artillery systems and four air defense systems. In total, 232,810 Russians have already died in the war in Ukraine.