BERLIN, July 3. /TASS/. The first phase of Ukraine’s counteroffensive was a flop, prompting a subsequent change in tactics, Austrian colonel and military analyst Markus Reisner said in a conversation with the German television channel n-tv on Monday.

"From my point of view, the first phase of the Ukrainian offensive has failed. Attempts were made to advance en masse, taking a page out of the US Army playbook. That's basically what Russia did at the beginning of the war - pushing on with rapidly advancing tank columns. Then the Ukrainians realized that the Russians were too well-prepared for such a breakthrough; they found themselves without the necessary support for a massive attack," Reisner said.

Then the Ukrainian army changed tactics, he went on to say. "They are trying to advance in small assault groups. This tactic is very, very slow, but it brings success," the colonel believes. In his opinion, more intensive fighting should be expected ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, since the Ukrainian armed forces "want to show once again that they are able to win back territories."

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces had been making unsuccessful attempts at an offensive since June 4. On June 22, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said that Ukrainian losses had exceeded 13,000 servicemen since the start of the counteroffensive. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukrainian troops had no success in any area.