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After the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kiev and Chenihov regions, pressure on the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Donbass front lines increased. While the shelling on Ukrainian military targets around Ukraine continues on a daily basis, the joint DPR, LPR and Russian forces are claiming small victories on the front lines.

DPR units with support of Russian forces are advancing and securing their rears to the east of the town of Maryinka, where fierce street fighting continues.

On April 6, the Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed that DPR units finished the mop up operation in the village of Sladkoye. The 11th regiment of the DPR broke through fierce resistance of the AFU and took control over the village.

Meanwhile, units of the Russian army entered the village of Novomikhailovka to the south of the town of Maryinka.

Positional battles continue to the north of Avdiivka. After DPR forces took control over the village of Novobakhmutovka, they are strengthening their positions there. Several streets are still under the AFU control.

Ukrainian soldiers attempted a counterattack on the village of Verhnetoretskoe with 6 tanks and infantry, but were repelled. Advance of DPR forces at the Avdiivka—Konstantinovka highway is expected.

One of the main strongholds of the AFU in the region is the town of Novgorodskoe to the west of Gorlovka. After years of war, Ukrainian forces have heavily fortified the area. Fierce clashes reached some streets of the town, but the DPR advance is slowed down by the AFU advantage in forces. The DPR assault is carried out with the air support of the Russian Aerospace forces.

The AFU are amassing in the Kramatorsk, Artemovsk (or Bakhmut), Druzhkovka area, while Russian forces are attempting to surround the AFU grouping from the north.

The main hotspot on the Donbass front lines is the region of Izyum. Amid fierce resistance by the AFU, Russian forces are slowly advancing to the south and southeast of Kamenka in the direction of Barvenkovo and Slavyansk. The villages of Brazhkovka and Sukhaya Kamenka are now under the Russian control.

In their turn, LPR forces are slowly advancing on the streets of the town of Popasnaya. In the Severodonetsk-Lysychansk area, LPR troops reached the outskirts of the Severodonetsk city, clashes continue in the eastern regions of Rubezhnoe, where the AFU blew up a tank with toxic substances at the Zarya chemical plant.

The Kharkiv and Sumy front lines remain without significant changes. A large offensive of Russian forces is expected in the region, after more Russian troops are transferred form the Kiev region to the Eastern front lines.

The Kiev officials are preparing to the battle by their traditional means, sharing lies. The notorious adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine Alexey Arestovich has recently claimed that of the 648 soldiers of the Russian 200 motorized rifle brigade, only three survived on the Kharkov outskirts.

In response, servicemen of the brigade responded with a video showing them carrying out combat missions a few kilometers from the city.

Despite unconfirmed reports of the Mykolaiv officials, no changes on the border of the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions are confirmed. The village of Snegirevka and the outskirts of Alexandrovka are under the Russian control. The AFU forces are attempting to attack from the Nikopol direction in the area of Novorontsovka.

The mop up operations in the city of Mariupol continue. According to the official representative of the DPR People’s Militia, about three thousand soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including nationalist regiments may currently be besieged in Mariupol.

The main battles in the central part of the city are over. Fighting moved to the port of the city and to the territory of the heavily fortified industrial area of the Azovstal plant.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to strike at the the military infrastructure of Ukraine.

On April 6, high-precision ground-based missiles destroyed the command post of Ukraine’s 56th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade near Novogrodovka, as well as a nationalist base in Grodovka, in Donetsk Region.

High-precision air-based missiles destroyed a fuel depot near Chuguev, in the Kharkov Region, from where fuel was supplied to Ukrainian troops.

In addition, a large concentration of foreign-made weapons and military equipment supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces was destroyed on the eve at the Lozovaya railway station in Kharkov Region.

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