The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has reported heavy Russian attacks on the front in the east of the country.

The military said in its morning report on Thursday that on the section near the small town of Toretsk alone, there had been 29 Russian assaults, sometimes using glide bombs dropped from aircraft.

A village named Niu-York (New York) was also particularly contested in the area.

Toretsk, located in the Donetsk region, is another hard-hit section of the front, Pokrovsk, where 26 attacks were reported.

After capturing the Donetsk city of Avdiivka in February, Russian troops have been slowly advancing.

In total, the general staff has reported 144 Russian attack attempts since Wednesday morning.

According to reports that have yet to be confirmed by Kyiv, Ukrainian troops had to abandon the village of Kalynivka near the town of Chasiv Yar.

Overnight airstrikes saw Russia deploy 16 combat drones and three guided missiles, according to the authorities in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that all the drones and two of the missiles were shot down.

In turn, the Ukrainians concentrated their attacks during the night on the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014 in violation of international law.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defence in Moscow, 33 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Crimea, and two drones were downed over the Bryansk border region.

Additionally, it said 10 sea drones were repelled off the coast of Crimea.

The figures mentioned cannot be independently verified.

In the naval city of Sevastopol in Crimea, gunfire was heard overnight.

Russian-appointed Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev explained via his Telegram channel that one of the remote-controlled sea drones had been repelled.

There was no information about possible damage.

Ukraine has been repelling a full-scale Russian invasion for almost two and a half years.

(dpa/NAN)