MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. The Ukrainian army’s casualties during the ongoing counteroffensive give grounds to say that it may end in three weeks, Head of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov said on Tuesday.

"As for the counteroffensive, everything proceeds the way we predicted. They [the Ukrainian military] are being successfully ground down by our defenses. For instance, in the past 24 hours, they [the Ukrainian military] lost about 900 troops killed and wounded, nine tanks and 26 armored vehicles. If this goes on at this pace, we will successfully complete this repulsion in about three weeks and switch to offensive actions," Kartapolov said in a live broadcast on the Soloviev Live TV Channel.

As the Russian Defense Ministry earlier reported, the Ukrainian military had been making unsuccessful attempts to attack since June 4. According to the ministry’s data, the Ukrainian military has lost about 7,500 troops killed and wounded since June 4 in its attempts to attack in the south Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Donetsk areas. Russian President Vladimir Putin also stressed that the Ukrainian military had not achieved any success in any of the frontline directions.