Ukrainian military forces have managed to destroy a pontoon bridge and parts of a Russian armored column as Kremlin troops tried to cross a river in the Donbass region, aerial photos released Friday by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry show. "The gunners of the 17th Tank Brigade have opened the holiday season for the Russists [the Russians]. Some bathe in the Siverskyi Donets River, and others burn under the May sun, "can be read in the message they have posted on their official Twitter account.

This information has been confirmed later by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense through the daily bulletin that it publishes on its official Twitter account, in which it has accepted the announcement as good and emphasized that such a dangerous action is the result of the desperation of the Russian commanders, forced to advance their costly invasion of eastern Ukraine.

"Carrying out the crossing of a river in disputed territory is a very risky maneuver and shows the pressure of Russian commanders to make progress in their offensive in eastern Ukraine - can be read in the British bulletin -. Russian forces have failed to make any significant progress despite concentrating forces in this area after withdrawing and redeploying units from kyiv and Chernigov Oblast."

According to sources consulted by the BBC, it is possible that between 140 and 180 Russian soldiers died in the attack, a serious estimate but not as high as the one initially presented by the Ukrainian forces, which raised the number of enemy casualties to 1,000. fallen soldiers. According to that same chain, the operation managed to destroy between 70 and 80 battleships.

For British Intelligence, the images leaked by the Ukrainians suggest that Russia has lost armored vehicles from at least one Battalion Tactical Group and the equipment needed to build a pontoon bridge deployed while trying to cross the Siverskyi Donets River in western Ukraine. Severodonetsk.