Sweeping bombing was launched by the Russian Air Force in an attempt to contain Ukrainian counter-attacks in Donetsk-Kherson until the first reinforcements from the partial militia arrive.

The Russians focused mainly on the regions where referendums are being held, in Zaporizhia and Donetsk, while Ukrainian positions were also hit in Nikolaev to reduce the pressure on the Kherson front.

The Russians hit the 81st Brigade, the 14th Mechanized Brigade in the Kharkiv region, the 9th National Guard Regiment in the Zaporizhia region, as well as command and observation posts of the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 65th Mechanized Brigade.

The Ukrainians count over 600 dead.

Grigorovka area – Russians pound Ukrainian positions.

Heavy shelling of Nikolaev

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the army destroyed the bases of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Nikolaev region, shelling command posts and ammunition depots.

-Aircraft, missile forces and artillery hit the temporary deployment points of the 59th motorized infantry and 63rd motorized brigade in the areas of Bezymennoe and Ternovye Pody settlements of the Nikolaev region.

Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 130 soldiers.

Hundreds of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers and foreign mercenaries were killed in the Kyiv-held Donetsk and Zaporizhia territories.

-Also, four command posts were hit during the day, including the 14th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near the village of Dvurechnaya, Kharkiv Region, the 9th National Guard Regiment near the village of Primorskoe, Zaporizhia Region, as well as command and observation posts of the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 65th mechanized brigade in the areas of Novoandreevka and Verkhnyaya Tersa settlements, Zaporizhzhya region.

-74 artillery units, manpower and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed in 142 areas.

-Three ammunition, missile and artillery depots were destroyed in Zaporizhzhya city districts, Monachinovka settlements in Kharkiv and Donetskoe region of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

-In the area of ​​Nikiforovka settlement in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a Ukrainian Buk-M1 anti-aircraft system was destroyed.

– Fighters of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 in the area of ​​Novoselovka settlement in Nikolaev region, as well as two Su-25s in the areas of Vesyoloye, Kherson region and Kamyshevka settlements in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

-Russian air defense systems shot down 19 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the areas of Novaya Kakhovka, Tomarino, Novoraysk, Shlyakhovoe, Miroliubovka, Belyaevka, Kreschenovka, Bruskinskoye and Chkalovo settlements of Kherson region, Lyubimovka, Trypillya, Vladimirovka, Gornoe, Khartsyzsk, Novoaleksandrovka, Evgenovka, Terny and Krasnaya Polyana of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

In the areas of Plodovoe and Novaya Kakhovka settlements in Kherson, air defense systems intercepted 42 rockets of the American HIMARS multiple missile system, as well as Alder.

510 dead Ukrainians and foreign mercenaries in Donetsk and Zaporizhia

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that hundreds of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers and foreign mercenaries were killed by Russian military strikes in the Kyiv-controlled territories of Donetsk and Zaporizhia.

Specifically:

– As a result of a high-precision strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces on units of the 81st Brigade in the region of the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk People’s Republic, more than 220 Ukrainian servicemen were killed.

-In the regions of the city of Slavyansk and the settlement of Ozernoye of the Donetsk People’s Republic, units of foreign mercenaries were struck.

Over 100 soldiers were killed.

-The high-precision weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the region of the city of Zaporizhzhya hit the positions of the Chaika tactical group, as well as the temporary deployment points of the national battalions Skif, Dnepr and Gepard.

Over 190 soldiers were killed while 12 units of military equipment were destroyed.