NEW YORK, October 3. /TASS/. The leadership of the Ukrainian armed forces does not allow its servicemen to gather in large groups for fear of a large-scale rebellion, retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor, a former adviser to the Defense Secretary of Defense under former US President Donald Trump, said.

"They (the Ukrainian military leadership - TASS) whittle down the squads to three or four men to prevent larger formations from forming that might actually rebel," Macgregor said on the air of the YouTube channel Judging Freedom.

He pointed out that distrust pervaded a military that sees its leadership send them to their deaths. "It’s a terrible condition. The people (the Ukrainian servicemen - TASS) are simply being fed systematically into the so-called meat grinder. <…> I would expect that to continue and even worsen in time," the colonel added.

Earlier, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh said that Ukrainian troops had suffered enormous losses during the counteroffensive and were effectively forced to call it off.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian army has been making unsuccessful attempts to launch a counteroffensive since June 4. On September 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Ukrainian armed forces had lost 71,500 servicemen, 543 tanks and almost 18,000 armored vehicles of various classes. The head of state stressed that the Ukrainian counteroffensive yielded no results.