Russian forces struck Ukrainian army units in the Kupyansk area, killing and wounding roughly 170 enemy troops and destroying four pickup trucks and two US-made howitzers over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

'In the Kupyansk direction, units of the western battlegroup supported by aircraft and artillery inflicted damage in their active operations on manpower of the Ukrainian army’s 25th air assault, 14th and 115th mechanized brigades in areas near the settlements of Novosyolovskoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Timkovka and Sinkovka in the Kharkov Region,' the ministry said in a statement.

The enemy lost as many as 170 Ukrainian personnel killed and wounded, four pickup trucks, two US-manufactured M109 Paladin howitzers and a D-30 field gun in the Kupyansk direction over the past 24 hours, the ministry specified.