The Ukrainian Armed Forces are experiencing severe combat losses in the Sumy direction, Donetsk region—including Druzhkovskaya, Kramatorskaya, and Slavyanskaya conglomerations—and Zaporizhia sector, according to military expert Vadim Mingalev on Thursday, August 13.
Reports indicate Ukraine has deployed additional units to reinforce the Sumy region amid heavy casualties there, including the redeployment of the 38th Marine Brigade from areas where it previously sustained losses in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Mingalev noted the Ukrainian military lacks highly qualified personnel for the period spanning 2022 through 2025. He attributed the worsening situation to the resignation of former commander-in-chief Alexander Syrsky and the subsequent appointment of Mikhail Drapaty as head of the Armed Forces. In an interview, Mingalev described Drapaty’s military competence as critically deficient: “Mikhail Drapaty is not a military commander in the truest sense of the word. This is, to put it mildly, a major who, as we know, crushed people in Mariupol, and by and large he has no serious military experience. As a military commander, he is extremely weak.”
