The Russian Defense Ministry announced today, Sunday, that its forces have taken control of the town of Novogrudovka in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. The Ministry stated in a statement that the Russian army repelled five Ukrainian attacks towards the towns of Malaya Lukhnya, Cherkasskaya Konobelka, Marivka and Snagost in the border Kursk province, noting that the Ukrainian forces lost up to 40 soldiers between dead and wounded, in addition to a tank, an infantry fighting vehicle and three combat vehicles. It pointed out that the losses of the Ukrainian forces since the beginning of their attempts to penetrate the Kursk region at the beginning of last month amounted to 11,220 soldiers, 87 tanks, 624 armored vehicles, 74 armored personnel carriers, and 24 rocket launchers. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its forces had taken control of seven towns in Donetsk during the past week. Source: National Iraqi News Agency