(MENAFN- UkrinForm) Vladyslav Voloshyn, spokesperson for the Southern Defense Forces, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"The enemy is constantly trying to carry out infiltration actions. Its goal is to break into Stepnohirsk, where the southern neighborhood has multi-story buildings with basements. The Russians aim to hole up there and fortify their positions, which would make it hard to drive them out. They are not only conducting assaults but also trying to approach from two directions – from the east, via Stepove, and from the west, via Kamianske, Plavni, and Prymorske," Voloshyn said.

According to him, small-arms firefights occur during such infiltration attempts, as Ukrainian forces conduct search-and-strike operations to detect and eliminate sabotage groups.

"The enemy has achieved no success with this tactic in Stepnohirsk," he said.

Voloshyn also said that over the past 24 hours, Russian forces launched nine assaults on Ukrainian positions in the south. Twice the occupiers tried to advance near the Antonivskyi road bridge and twice more in the Huliaipole area, attacking Ukrainian positions near Malynivka.

"Near Orikhiv, close to Novoandriivka, the enemy used six motorcycles in an assault – it was a large-scale motorcycle attack. The Russians tried to break through our defenses. The battle lasted more than an hour and a half," Voloshyn said.

Read also: Russia increasing intensity of glide bomb and FPV drone strikes on southern front – Voloshyn

He added that over the past week, Ukrainian forces have not lost a single kilometer of ground. Despite repeated attempts at large-scale mechanized assaults with armored vehicles and tanks, the enemy has failed to make any gains inside populated areas.

"The only thing is that the enemy has literally wiped out several of our positions by striking them with guided aerial bombs and artillery. A position can be destroyed completely – burned out and leveled – forcing us to withdraw to a flank, take up a new position, wait for the enemy to move in, and then destroy them," the spokesperson said.

Ukrainian and Russian forces engaged in 124 combat clashes on October 26, with the heaviest fighting taking place in the Pokrovsk sector.

Photo: General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces

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