LUGANSK, March 14. /TASS/. The retaking of Sudzha in the Kursk Region by Russian troops has dealt a heavy blow to the reputation of Ukraine’s armed forces, military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS as he suggested that it would take the enemy long to recuperate.

"That defeat in the Kursk Region has not only inflicted major reputational losses on Ukrainian armed formations. It will take them very long to recover their combat capabilities after those clashes, because they suffered colossal losses: Ukrainian militants sustained more than 67,000 [casualties] because of [Vladimir] Zelensky’s wishful ambitions," Marochko maintained. "[Kiev] will have no trump card in the form of the Kursk Region at negotiations [between Russia, the United States and Ukraine] because the region will be liberated soon," he argued.

The Russian Defense Ministry has said the Battlegroup North retook Sudzha on March 13.