Ukraine has suffered heavy losses during three months of its summer counteroffensive against Russia but has failed to achieve its goals at any part of the front line, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has reported. "I can confirm that the counter-offensive of Ukraine is a failure; for the last 10 days they have been making violent attacks with great forces, with great hopes - all of it failed." he said.
Kiev’s forces have lost more than 66,000 troops and over 7,600 heavy weapons since launching their push in early June, the Russian official said on Tuesday.
Despite the “colossal” cost in manpower and equipment, the Ukrainian government continues its operation because it desperately needs to show some kind of success to its Western sponsors, Shoigu also stated.
The most tense situation remains in Zaporozhye Region, where Kiev deployed brigades from its strategic reserves that had been trained with the help of Western instructors, the minister said.
Artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked its own servicemen after they tried to leave their positions in the Kherson region due to the lack of food and ammunition. The soldiers surrendered to the forces of the Russian Federation, Acting Governor of the Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo said on his Telegram channel.
Over this past weekend, boats were used by Kiev for attacks in 3 ports: Chernomorsky, Yuzhny, and Odessa. Four such speed boats, manned by Ukraine Paratroopers, were destroyed before they ever made it to land.
During the past week, seven other unmanned boats of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also destroyed.
Ukraine's losses are so heavy that only yesterday, 6 tanks were destroyed in the Bakhmut area.
PORTS
Asked why Russia seems to now be focusing so heavily on hitting Ukrainian ports, Shoigu replied "Ukrainian ports should not have been used to attack our infrastructure and create drones.This was, among other things, part of the grain deal. All these Grain Deal agreements were broken by Ukraine."
