LUGANSK, October 13. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops, including foreign mercenaries, sustained 4,000 casualties in battles near the border of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS.

"Over the past week, Ukraine’s armed formations lost some 4,045 Ukrainian militants and mercenaries in the areas of responsibility of the battlegroups North, South, and West near the LPR. The Battlegroup West operating in the Kupyansk and Svatovo-Kremennaya sectors of the line of engagement in the LPR inflicted the heaviest casualties on the enemy’s forces," he said, citing analysis from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Also in the past week, Russian fighters destroyed five tanks, including a Leopard tank, 49 field artillery guns, two US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, an MLRS launcher, 50 electronic warfare and counterbattery systems, 110 depots for munitions, fuel and materiel as well as almost 380 enemy combat vehicles, Marochko specified.