LUGANSK, March 22. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops did not rescue their wounded fellow soldiers and left them for dead after failing to counterattack Russian forces on the front near Kupyansk, Andrey Marochko, a retired lieutenant-colonel of the People’s Militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), told TASS on Wednesday.

"The bodies of eliminated militants were found near Ukrainian positions between Novosyolovskoye and Stelmakhovka (the Kupyansk sector of the frontlines - TASS). The enemy sustained losses after yet another attempt at a counteroffensive in that sector of the frontline two days ago, but the bodies were never retrieved," he said, citing Russian recon data.

According to Marochko, several Ukrainian soldiers sustained wounds in the battle but were still alive, however, "they died after a while because no assistance was rendered to them."

On Monday, Colonel Sergey Zybinsky, the spokesman for Russia’s Western group of forces, said that the Russian army had thwarted an attempt by Ukrainian forces to attack Russian positions in the area of Kupyansk.