Dmytro Zhmailo, a Ukrainian expert and the Executive Director of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, says Kyiv troops managed to stop the first wave of the Russian offensive. Currently, Moscow is trying to fulfill its main objective — the complete capture of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, UNIAN reports.

He notes that the second wave of Russian forces’ so-called summer offensive has just been launched. Although the Russians have had some successes in certain areas, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to repel the first wave of the offensive.

Zhmailo explains that the main reason for Russia’s advance near the Kostiantynivka settlement in Donetsk Oblast is the large concentration of Moscow’s units. About 100,000 troops from the overall 700,000-strong Russian grouping are concentrated there. Currently, the Russians are receiving reinforcements for the start of the second wave of the offensive.

However, according to him, the battle for Kostiantynivka has not yet begun. The city’s administration and police are still operating, although there is an ongoing humanitarian crisis with issues in water and electricity supply. Ukrainian troops hold positions in Chasiv Yar and on the outskirts of Toretsk, holding back the Russian occupiers’ rapid advance.

Moscow troops are focusing their most significant efforts along the Pokrovsk–Kostiantynivka highway, trying to “breakthrough” villages to get closer to the city. In the northern part of the region, activity has increased in the Lyman direction, with the prospect of reaching Sviatohirsk and squeezing the non-occupied territories of Donetsk.

His comrades died in their very first battle, and he was taken prisoner. Chinese national Wang Wu, known as Sabre, says he, like many other foreigners, was recruited under false pretenses, promised rear-line duties.

But after a brief training period, they were immediately thrown into frontline combat, including in a suicidal assault near Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast. 

A new report by I Want to Live, the Ukrainian state project, has exposed what happens to foreign recruits in the Russian army after signing contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

“I truly understand that we were deceived… I believe signing that contract was a shameful decision. I’m certain other Chinese citizens should know they are being lied to,” says the captured soldier.

According to the project’s representatives, most of the new recruits shown in videos from Russia’s 102nd Regiment are now either dead or severely wounded. Among the dead is Wang Wu’s friend, Yan Jingsheng, whose death he witnessed firsthand.

The project has stressed that foreigners in the Russian army are treated as nothing more than cannon fodder.

“If they don’t spare their own, why would they make exceptions for Asians or Africans?” the statement reads.

On 8 April, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that Ukraine captured two Chinese citizens who were fighting alongside Russian troops in the Donetsk Oblast. The operatives obtained their documents, bank cards, and personal data. An investigation and additional measures are ongoing. 

One of them paid $3,482 to join the Russian military through a Chinese intermediary. He explained that his main motivation was to obtain Russian citizenship through military service. He underwent basic training in occupied Luhansk alongside other Chinese citizens, with instruction conducted without formal translation.