LUGANSK, March 2. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have lost around 119,500 soldiers and mercenaries in fighting with Russian troops in the special military operation zone during the winter, with the heaviest losses recorded in December, military expert Andrey Marochko reported.

"The enemy’s sanitary and irreparable losses in December amounted to nearly 50,000 Ukrainian fighters and mercenaries, in January - to around 35,000, and in February exceeded 34,500," the expert said in a live broadcast on his VKontakte social media page, analyzing data from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Marochko added that in combat operations between December and February, Kiev also lost around 16,300 drones, 1,400 tanks and other armored vehicles, 1,600 field artillery pieces and mortars, as well as nearly 1,100 ammunition, fuel, and supply depots.