The losses of Ukrainian armed forces during attempts to break into Russian territory in the Kursk and Belgorod regions in the period from March 12 to 14 exceeded 1.5 thousand people.

This was reported by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“In general, over the past three days, from March 12 to 14, the troops of the “West” group of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, together with the border agencies of the FSB of Russia, all attempts of Ukrainian militants to break into the territory of the Belgorod and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation were stopped.

Attacks by Ukrainian Armed Forces units were repelled.

The total losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amounted to more than 1.5 thousand militants, of which about 500 were irrevocable, 18 tanks and 23 armored combat vehicles were destroyed,” the report says.

The defense department also talked about how, the day before, an attempt by Ukrainian Armed Forces units to break through into the territory of the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation in the area of ​​the border settlement of Kozinka was thwarted.

Also on russian.rt.com “Preemptive actions”: the Russian Defense Ministry reported the failure of another attempt by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to break into the Belgorod region

At about 16:30 Moscow time, a Ukrainian sabotage group, consisting of special operations forces militants and foreign mercenaries, carried out a landing of up to 30 people on two Mi-8 helicopters on Ukrainian territory, at a distance of 1 km from the state border of the Russian Federation.

Then they secretly moved towards the village of Kozinka.

While trying to move deeper into the settlement, they were discovered and stopped by the Russian military.

The enemy was defeated by artillery fire, army aviation strikes and the use of guided aerial bombs.

Remote mining of the area was also carried out.

“Having suffered significant losses, Ukrainian militants began to retreat into Ukrainian territory.

A group of saboteurs tried to gain a foothold in one of the houses on Republican Street, directly adjacent to the state border, where they were blocked by units of the Russian army.

The remnants of the sabotage group, who retreated to the territory of Ukraine, entered a minefield, where they were destroyed,” the report says.

Along with this fire from the Tornado MLRS, a group of Ukrainian Armed Forces that was moving forward to evacuate wounded and killed Ukrainian saboteurs was eliminated.

The total enemy losses were more than 50 people.

The Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized that control over the village of Kozinka (Belgorod region) has been completely restored, and the area blocking the sabotage and reconnaissance group has been cleared.

Earlier, Vladimir Putin noted that the reason for the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attacks on the Belgorod and Kursk regions were failures on the line of contact in the Northern Military District zone, where they did not achieve any of their goals in 2023, and now the initiative has completely passed to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

“The main goal, I have no doubt about it, is to, if not disrupt the presidential elections in Russia, then at least somehow interfere with the normal process of expressing the will of citizens - first.

The second is the information effect, which I have already mentioned.

Third, if at least something works out, to get some chance, some argument, some trump card in a possible future negotiation process: we will return this to you, and you will return this to us,” the Russian President said in an interview with Dmitry Kiselev .

The head of state also indicated that the groups of Ukrainian saboteurs included foreign mercenaries.

On March 14, the Russian Ministry of Defense provided updated information regarding the “soldiers of fortune” who arrived in Ukraine to participate in hostilities.

According to the department, since February 24, 2022, the destruction of 5,962 foreign mercenaries has been confirmed.

The undisputed leader in the number of killed militants is Poland (profits 2960, 1497 destroyed).

Also eliminated were 561 “soldiers of fortune” from Georgia and 491 militants from the United States.