LUGANSK, August 3. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces lost over 9,600 troops and foreign mercenaries killed or wounded in the special military operation zone over the past week, Russian military expert Andrey Marochko said.

"As for the enemy’s losses, about 9,635 Ukrainian militants and mercenaries were killed or wounded. Russia's Battlegroup Center, operating in the Donetsk People's Republic and the Dnepropetrovsk Region, inflicted the heaviest manpower losses on the enemy," he wrote on the VKontakte social media platform.

According to Marochko, Kiev’s losses increased in the Battlegroup Center's area of responsibility after Ukrainian forces launched a series of unsuccessful "meat assaults" near Dobropolye over the past week.

He added that Ukrainian forces had also lost 5,100 drones, three unmanned boats, 25 electronic warfare systems and radars, 45 field artillery pieces and more than 600 combat vehicles during the week.