MELITOPOL, July 14. /TASS/. Russian forces wiped out a subversive and reconnaissance group of Ukraine’s armed forces, made of foreign mercenaries, with the use of drones near the locality of Rabotino in the Zaporozhye direction, Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We Stand With Russia movement, told TASS on Friday.

"In the Orekhovo direction, in Rabotino, an enemy subversive and reconnaissance group was eliminated early this morning; it was made of people speaking foreign languages, or foreign mercenaries. No such things have ever been registered before. The five-strong group was riding an ordinary pickup truck. Russian forces used kamikaze drones to eliminate them," he specified.

"Those were European mercenaries," Rogov added, without specifying their ethnicity.

The Russian Defense Ministry has said that, starting from June 4, the Ukrainian armed forces had been making unsuccessful attempts at a counteroffensive. On July 11, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told reporters that Ukraine had lost over 26,000 servicemen since the counteroffensive began. Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Ukrainian troops had failed to achieve any success in any area.