Donetsk, Mar 29 - DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic and Russian servicemen have killed 55 gunmen of Ukrainian armed formations and destroyed enemy military equipment over the past 24 hours, DPR People’s Militia deputy commander Eduard Basurin said on Tuesday.

“Our servicemen killed 55 Ukrainian nationalists and destroyed a helicopter, two infantry fighting vehicles, the fire position of a 122mm howitzer D-30 and two trucks,” Basurin said.

The DPR trophies included two IFVs, an armored vehicle and a weapon and ammunition dump. Fourteen servicemen from the Ukrainian army’s 25th Airborne Brigade and 54th Mechanized Brigade turned themselves in to DPR forces, he added.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a special military operation in Ukraine. On the same day, the DPR and LPR forces launched a liberation movement in the Donbass region.*jk