Andriy Zagorodnyuk noted that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is experiencing great difficulties
NEW YORK, August 1. /tass/. Approximately 2 million mines are laid on the territory of Ukraine, which prevents the counteroffensive of Ukrainian troops, Fox News channel reports, citing former Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk.
"They [the military] choose the direction of movement more carefully <...>, because we are talking about about 2 million mines. Some territories are extremely heavily mined," the TV channel quotes him as saying. According to the former minister, in some areas mines are laid just a few meters apart, and the process of mine clearance is "extremely difficult" and takes a lot of time. Mining of the territory has significantly complicated the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Zagorodnyuk believes.
The former head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry also told Fox News that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are experiencing difficulties with the maintenance of Western military equipment due to a shortage of spare parts. He compared the situation to a "nightmare" and admitted that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is experiencing great difficulties.
As reported in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian army has been unsuccessfully attempting an offensive since June 4. On July 11, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the AFU had lost more than 26 thousand people since the beginning of the counteroffensive. Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Ukrainian troops are not successful in any direction. On July 23, at a meeting with the leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko in St. Petersburg, he announced the failure of Kiev's counteroffensive.
