MELITOPOL, September 19. /TASS/. Ukraine’s armed forces will launch a third wave of their so-called counteroffensive before the end of the month, Zaporozhye Region Acting Governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.

"In September we are forecasting a third wave of the so-called counteroffensive. The adversary still has something left in the tank but it is running out and they are staring down the barrel of enormous losses as a result of their Western handlers' desire for another offensive, especially at their positions where lowlands are fully visible and controlled by our forces," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Earlier on Tuesday, Balitsky said that a convoy of Ukrainian armored vehicles had been wiped out near the village of Rabotino. According to him, the adversary attempted to attack the villages of Novopokrovka and Ilchenkovo located to the south and southeast.

The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that the Ukrainian armed forces had been making unsuccessful attempts at a counteroffensive since June 4. On September 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that since then, Ukrainian troops have lost 71,500 people, 543 tanks and almost 18,000 armored vehicles of various types. The Russian head of state noted that the "counteroffensive" produced no results.