OREANDA-NEWS The official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov, during a briefing, spoke about cases of mass desertion in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and refusal to participate in hostilities.

According to the defense department, in the area of ​​​​the village of Aleksandropol in the Donetsk People's Republic, more than 30 Ukrainian fighters from one of the battalions of the 25th airborne brigade threw down their personal weapons and left their positions without permission.

Konashenkov also said that the Ukrainian command in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions is forced to form separate rifle battalions from untrained citizens called up to mobilize.

Ukrainian troops continue to suffer significant losses, the ministry added. In the settlements of Nikolaev, Golitsyno, Mykolaiv region, and Oleshki, Kharkiv region, more than 200 "soldiers of fortune" and up to 100 Ukrainian fighters were killed as a result of strikes with precision-guided weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces at three points of deployment of foreign mercenaries.

Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the capture of several settlements in the Luhansk direction.