Russian drones strike Ukrainian positions in Donbass (VIDEO)

Russian forces have taken control of the village of Semyonovka in Donbass, the Defense Ministry has said in a statement on Telegram. The Russian military also published a video showing drone strikes targeting fortified Ukrainian positions in the area.

It includes several clips, mostly taken by cameras mounted on first-person-view (FPV) drones as they were approaching enemy trenches. Unmanned aerial vehicles can be seen precisely hitting positions, often located in wooded areas or near settlements, and hidden under camouflage nets.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Moscow’s troops also successfully repelled ten counterattacks by Ukrainian assault groups in Semyonovka and some nearby villages. Kiev lost some 370 soldiers in the unsuccessful operation, it added.

Semyonovka is located west of the strategic Donbass town of Avdeevka, taken by Moscow’s forces in February. Russia has since managed to press the advance and capture several smaller settlements while breaching the Ukrainian defenses in the area.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General Aleksandr Syrsky, admitted a “tactical” retreat in Donbass, confirming that Kiev’s forces had left Semyonovka and another Donbass village, Berdychi.

Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that Moscow’s forces had seized the initiative in the Ukraine conflict and “dispelled the myth of the superiority of Western weapons.” His ministry also claimed that Kiev had lost over 8,000 soldiers in one week, alongside dozens of pieces of equipment, including US-made HIMARS and Czech-supplied RM-70 Vampire multiple rocket launchers.

Moscow’s forces are now firmly in control of the battlefield situation and are steadily pushing the Ukrainians back, Shoigu said on Monday. Last Friday, Syrsky told Ukraine’s backers that his troops face a “difficult operational and strategic situation, which has a tendency to get worse.”