The soldier told the newspaper "They were hit by anti-tank fire … The guys did not survive."
Ukraine launched its much-touted counteroffensive in early June after repeatedly delaying the campaign over a lack of military supplies from its Western donors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that progress was "slower than desired."
After encountering stiff Russian resistance, Ukrainian commanders largely held off sending Western tanks into battle, focusing instead on making targeted strikes, Western media reported. In mid-July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine's counteroffensive was in its "early weeks" and would "play out over the next weeks."