Ukrainian defenders repulse six enemy attacks in Luhansk, Donetsk regions – General Staff

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in a statement posted on its Facebook page,  Ukrinform reports.

"In the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, our soldiers over the past day [April 11] repelled six enemy attacks, destroyed four tanks, five armored vehicles, twenty-six units of vehicles and eight enemy artillery systems," the General Staff said.

During the previous day, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit seven air targets: one plane, two helicopters and four unmanned aerial vehicles.

According to the General Staff, as of 06:00 on April 12, Russian troops were trying to complete the regrouping and relocation of units to the areas in Belgorod and Voronezh regions of Russia, as well as relocation of air forces to airfields near the eastern borders of Ukraine.

"The Russian occupiers, ignoring the norms of international humanitarian law, continue to use tactics of locating equipment and manpower directly in civilian areas. Thus, in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the occupiers use the premises of agricultural enterprises, energy and social infrastructure facilities, and the central residential districts. There have been cases of the enemy fighting in civilian clothes,” the statement says.

In the Siverskyi direction, the enemy completes the redeployment of individual units to the eastern operational zone.

In the Slobozhanskyi direction, enemy troops continue to partially block the city of Kharkiv. In the area of Izium city, the enemy is fighting with the forces of individual units.

According to the General Staff, in the Donetsk and Tavriya directions, the enemy carried out offensive operations and held certain borders with forces from the southern military district. "It is removing additional units to conduct hostilities in the territories of Ukraine," the statement said.

The General Staff also noted that Ukrainian defenders strengthened the air defense in the districts of Melitopol and Ilovaisk.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure facilities, conducting massive shelling of residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and ballistic missiles.