Yevgeny Balitsky, Zaporozhye region's acting governor, took to his Telegram channel to report that approximately 500 Ukrainian soldiers had fled the offensive on the Zaporozhye front.
The governor noted: "I just received information that two of the three airmobile battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine refused to participate in offensive operations in the direction of our positions due to their low moral and psychological state."
Balitsky reported that this group of 500 servicemen had grown weary of witnessing the fatalities among their colleagues. He added that these individuals were determined not to become mere cannon fodder on the battlefield.
He mentioned that during the previous night, an additional 132 soldiers from the Ukraine army had lost their lives on the Zaporozhye front.
Balitsky noted that these soldiers were attempting to advance in their direction, but they weren't able to even reach the initial position before sacrificing their lives, seemingly in alignment with the wishes of Western commanders.
President Vladimir Putin, while hosting his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, affirmed that Ukraine's counteroffensive had failed, after the Kiev regime's military began its much-hyped campaign this past June despite being flooded with cash donations and delivery of military equipment by NATO and its allies.
"There is no [Ukrainian] counteroffensive," Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in conversation with the Russian president.
Putin admitted: "It exists, but it failed."