![](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-46355b184e.jpg?w=620)
DRAMATIC footage shows Ukraine repel a series of Russian assaults one by one in a humiliating blow to Vladimir Putin.
The despot's attempt to turn tide of the war failed after at least 29 attacks were fended off by President Volodymyr Zelensky's forces.
Putin ordered his army to capture more territory in Donetsk region - but the deadly advance resulted in a huge defeat and destruction.
An estimated 40 intruders are thought to have died in the attack, while 37 were injured.
Six Russian tanks and seven armoured battle vehicles were destroyed as they were struck by kamikaze drones.
Ukrainian paratroopers repulsed 29 attacks in the city of Kurakhove alone as Russia steps up its operations in several areas of the Eastern Front, according to the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Dmytro Hutsuliak.
Anti-tank gunners have also been involved in the defence against the Russian attack group, said Ukraine's 79th Separate Air Assault Brigade - also known as the Taurian Brigade.
Putin's forces also fell into mines set by Ukrainian sappers.
The brigade said in a statement: “As a result of the battle, our paratroopers shot down six tanks and seven armoured personnel carriers with infantry.
“All 12 motorbikes were burned.
Most read in The Sun
“The Russians suffered huge losses in manpower: 40 occupants were killed and another 37 wounded.”
200 assault vehicles, 11 tanks, 12 motorcycles, and about 57 armoured vehicles were allegedly involved in the vicious attack.
The Russian thrust was dubbed "one of the largest assaults of the war" by the brigade.
The brigade shared footage of the assault in which the Russian army launched the offensive from multiple directions at once early on Wednesday morning.
The Ukrainian brigade had spotted the Russian equipment and rained down heavy artillery fire on Moscow's forces.
The statement from Ukraine's Taurian brigade continued: "After knocking out the first tanks and armoured vehicles, other vehicles rushed to flee the battlefield.
"Drone operators finished off the infantry as they ran. The rest of the equipment fled the battlefield."
Hutsuliak claims that in the last 24 hours, the Ukrainian Air Force, along with artillery and missile units, has struck enemy personnel groups 13 times.
He added that the forces successfully hit a radar, a control post, two anti-aircraft missile systems, and an artillery system.
Russia's embarrassing loss comes after a UK defence chief has warned that it will take Putin another five years and almost 2million soldiers to capture a "slice" of Eastern Ukraine.
Army chief General Sir Roly Walker said that Russia’s dead and wounded would be up to 1.8 million if Putin keeps throwing his men to the slaughter.
He said Moscow would also lose “untold billions” worth of military equipment.
But he warned the Kremlin might be willing to absorb eye-watering losses as, “their calculus is different to ours”.
The UK estimates Russia has lost 550,000 soldiers, including dead and wounded, since Putin unleashed his full scale invasion in Feb 2022.
Gen Walker said the toll would triple if Russia continued grinding forward in the southern and eastern provinces of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Read More on The US Sun
He said: “If they carry on as they are, it will probably take the Russians five years to grind their way to their minimum objectives of the four oblasts.
“At the current rate of attrition of dead and wounded, that puts them probably well north of 1.5million casualties to achieve that, with untold billions of lost equipment.