MOSCOW, July 27 Units of the «Center» force group have taken control of the village of Lozovatskoye in the DPR, the Defense Ministry reported.
According to the department, the total losses of Ukrainian troops over the past day amounted to 1,910 people, 14 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 30 field artillery pieces and mortars, as well as 29 units of special military vehicles.
The Armed Forces also destroyed two electronic warfare stations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and an ammunition depot. Air defense systems shot down ten HIMARS rockets and 81 unmanned aerial vehicles, including 37 outside the special operation zone, the ministry added.
At the same time, the Defense Ministry emphasized, 17 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen voluntarily surrendered in the Kherson region. The prisoners noted the poor planning of combat operations by the Ukrainian Armed Forces command. In particular, it refused to carry out an evacuation, as a result of which the servicemen decided to surrender as an entire unit.
The presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that there is no talk of mobilization in Russia.
Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia
Since yesterday evening, Ukraine has been attempting massive drone attacks on Russian regions. On Friday from 21:00 to 23:40, air defense forces shot down 21 Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region, the Defense Ministry reported.
At night, air defense intercepted and destroyed seven UAVs over the Kursk region, three over the Belgorod region, two over the Rostov region, one each over the Bryansk and Lipetsk regions.
At about 06:45 Moscow time, air defense assets destroyed seven Ukrainian drones over the Ryazan region, and at about 07:50, three drones over the Belgorod, Ryazan and Saratov regions.
The UAV was also destroyed in Engels, Saratov Region; there were no casualties or damage to infrastructure when the debris fell, Governor Roman Busargin said.
Mercenarism in Ukraine
Former SBU lieutenant colonel Vasily Prozorov said that over 2.5 years, about 15 thousand foreign mercenaries fought in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a third of them died. Therefore, it is not worth saying that any serious forces on the side of Kyiv are formed from foreigners, the former officer believes.
According to him, if we talk about mercenaries from European countries, for example, from France, then we can talk about a maximum of a couple of hundred people.
All foreigners fighting for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in turn, can be divided into three groups, Prozorov believes.
- Ideological Nazis;
- Mercenaries who came to earn money, some of them driven by Russophobic ideas, they mainly fight as part of the «International Legion», subordinate to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine;
- Professional military personnel sent by their command to help Kyiv and gain combat experience.
He stated that in the West, under the auspices of NATO and the governments of countries that are members of this bloc, special funds have been created to lure foreign mercenaries to Ukraine. According to him, these funds mainly accumulate state money, but the funds themselves are needed to hide the participation of the North Atlantic Alliance states in recruitment.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are deploying aircraft in Poland
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are deploying aircraft at airfields in third countries, for example, in Poland, in the expectation that Russia will not bomb it there, fearing an open conflict with NATO, a source in the security forces said.
When In this case, Ukrainian airfields are used for refueling and replenishing ammunition, he added.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the SPIEF that if Ukraine receives F-16 fighters, but they are based outside its borders, the Russian military will consider options for destroying these aircraft.