Updates From Ukraine: Massive Single-Day Losses, Russia Launches Missile Attack On Ukraine's Foreign-Made Equipment

Ukraine sustains massive single-day losses

RT

Ukrainian military forces have sustained heavy casualties across the frontlines during the last 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Russia’s Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions have seen the most intense fighting, with Kiev losing more than 800 soldiers in those regions

“Over the past day, enemy losses in the Southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions amounted to more than 800 Ukrainian servicemen, 20 tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles, [and] 15 armored fighting vehicles,” the military stated on Sunday during a daily media briefing. The ministry did not elaborate on whether its figures for casualties includes those killed and injured or fatalities exclusively.

As well as these setbacks in personnel and equipment, Ukrainian troops also lost two US-made M777 howitzers and several Soviet-made artillery systems, the military added.

The immediate vicinity of Donetsk city has also seen intense fighting, with Ukrainian forces losing over 200 soldiers on this axis, according to the ministry. The Russian military has destroyed multiple soft and armored vehicles on the outskirts of Donetsk, it also said, as well as two major ammunition stockpiles to the northwest of the city.

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has intensified after Kiev launched its long-heralded counteroffensive in early June. Thus far, the Ukrainian military has failed to make any major gains, sustaining heavy losses in the process and losing large amounts of Western-supplied hardware. According to the estimates of Moscow’s military, some 7,500 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded amid the counteroffensive effort.

Leopard Hunt: Ukrainian Crews Are Faking Tank Breakdowns To Escape From Frontline Combat – Russian Forces Search and Destroy German ‘Wunderwaffe’ in a Quest for Money Reward

Paul Serran

Every few months, in the war in the Ukraine, the hopes of Ukrainians and their Western handlers are kindled with the imminent arrival of some miracle weapon (Wunderwaffe), that is to pave the way to a decisive victory against the Russian forces.

It was like that with Turkish UAV’s Bayraktars, with American Javelins and HIMARS. Needless to say, so far none of these technologies made a positive difference in the battlefield.

Worse, it now surfaces that some Ukrainian tank crews engaged in the counteroffensive are reportedly faking combat vehicle breakdowns to escape from confronting the Russian army.

“The report quoted a 22-year-old loader, using the call sign Gudzik, as saying that some soldiers refuse to participate in the war, and some simulate tank damage to avoid engaging in battle.

Spiegel report says that the three Leopard 2 crew members interviewed by the publication do not condemn the soldiers who refuse to participate in the war, as they understand the risks involved, acknowledging that if a Russian shell were to hit the turret of a combat vehicle, ‘then you [Tank operator] will become a pile of ashes’.” 

During the attack, Ukrainian forces – who were trained for 45 days on the operation of the Leopards – face heavily mined fields by the Russian defenders, which are a significant threat to the attacking tanks with no air cover.

As images of destroyed Leopards and Bradleys go around the world, there are already efforts on the way to send more German tanks to the slaughter. And not the new version of Leopards, either, but the first Leopards, with a square turret and a comparatively weak 105 mm cannon.

All sorts of German media, which praised the Leopard tanks in every way, played a bad service for the concern, presented them as an invincible weapon, from the mere sight of which the Russians would start to run away.”

With the failing counteroffensive, commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are throwing soldiers unaccompanied of any armored cover, and the staggering human losses are mounting.

Russia Launches Missile Attack on Storage of Ukraine's Foreign-Made Equipment

Sputnik

The Russian armed forces launched a missile attack on the locations of storage of foreign-made equipment of the Ukrainian army in the night from Sunday to Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said. 

"Tonight, the Russian armed forces carried out a group strike using sea-based long-range precision weapons at locations where foreign-made military equipment is stored," the ministry said. 

The ministry added that all designated targets had been hit and the goal of the strike had been achieved.

Russian forces also successfully repelled four attacks by Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk direction and three attacks in the South Donetsk direction over the past 24 hours, with the attacks being the most active part of Kiev's offensive actions.

As a result of the hostilities, the Ukrainian army lost more than 340 military personnel, 10 pieces of equipment, including one Polish-made Krab gun-howitzer, as well as an ammunition depot in the Donetsk direction and over 100 troops, one tank, 12 armored fighting vehicles, as well as a foreign-made obstacle fighting vehicle in the South Donetsk direction, the ministry added.

In the Zaporozhye Region, Russian forces successfully repelled two attacks by Ukrainian troops in the area of the village of Malaya Tokmachka over the past 24 hours.

"Two enemy attacks were repelled near the village of Malaya Tokmachka, Zaporozhye Region, during which two tanks, 10 infantry fighting vehicles and two armored fighting vehicles were hit," the ministry said.

Multiple victims as Kiev strikes ‘humanitarian warehouse’ – Donbass region head

RT

Ukrainian rocket artillery that the country received from Western nations, has injured some 20 civilians in the frontline Donbass city of Volnovakha, the acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) reported.

The rockets hit what Denis Pushilin described as an “absolutely peaceful district” in the city, and he listed a bus stop, a school and a humanitarian warehouse as having been affected by the shelling.

The DPR civic defense office identified the projectiles as fired by HIMARS rocket launchers, a US-made weapon system. Near the warehouse alone, officials found six craters left by the Ukrainian shelling, it said. The facility is used to distribute building materials to householders in need.

RT correspondent Roman Kosarev visited the location and found it abandoned. He said everyone had been evacuated because the authorities feared a second strike by Ukrainian forces.

The initial attack was launched at around 9am local time (6am GMT), when the warehouse was busy with people seeking assistance, he noted. At least two of the victims are said to be in serious condition.