The Ukrainian Defense Forces stopped the armored vehicles of the Russian invaders near Novopokrovske, Donetsk region.

The 47th Mechanized Brigade said that the Russian invaders launched an assault in the morning.

The Russians limited visibility on the battlefield with a smoke screen. The rising sun also interfered with the Ukrainian drone operators.

The Russian command sent armored personnel carriers and tanks to the assault, which were supposed to quickly reach the Ukrainian positions.

The Strike Drones Company unit armed with drones was engaged to fight off the attack.

“It is, in fact, difficult to concentrate in such conditions, but nothing is impossible for the soldiers of Strike Drones Company,” the brigade says.

Ukrainian FPV drones managed to hit BTR-82A and MT-LB armored personnel carriers.

Also in this sector, in the occupied village of Novobakhmutivka, a drone hit a T-62M tank, which was damaged.

The settlement of Novopokrovske is on the invaders’ way to the important city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.

Russia is now moving in two directions at once: from the Ocheretynsk salient northward to New York (a village in the Donetsk region) and Toretsk, and westward to Pokrovsk. Russia has been systematically expanding this foothold since the capture of Avdiivka and the subsequent breakthrough to the West in February 2024.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Pokrovsk sector the hottest in his address on May 26.