The military command of the Russian Federation has stopped sending new units to Ukraine after a dramatic Ukrainian counteroffensive that changed the shape of the war and shook Moscow, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Monday, The Guardian and Ukrainian Pravda reported.

“The military command of the Russian Federation has suspended the transfer of already formed new units to the territory of Ukraine,” the message on the Facebook page of the General Staff reads.

“The situation in the theater of operations, the distrust of the higher command forced a large number of volunteers to categorically refuse the prospect of service in combat conditions,” the message reads.

“The situation is influenced by information about the real number of dead, and losses from private military companies and those mobilized from temporarily occupied territories are not taken into account. The general attitude towards their own wounded worsens the situation. In particular, Russian hospitals deliberately simplify the diagnoses and nature of combat injuries and do not allow time for rehabilitation in order to quickly return servicemen to the combat zone.”

This information could not be confirmed. The Kremlin has not yet responded.

Vitaly Ganchev, a Russian-appointed official of the Kharkiv region, told the state TV channel “Russia-24” that Russian troops were outnumbered “eight times”. He also stated, without providing evidence, that Ukrainian forces were reinforced by “Western mercenaries”.

Ganchev said that the “situation is getting more difficult every hour”, saying that the border with Russia’s Belgorod region is closed.

Also, a Russian military reporter stated live on the TV channel “Russia-1” that the Russian military is afraid of being abandoned.

“What are people’s requirements? They are afraid that they will be abandoned, like the people of Kharkiv and Kyiv,” says military journalist Oleksandr Sladkov regarding the announced withdrawal of Russian troops from the region of the Ukrainian capital at the end of March. Also at that time, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced the withdrawal of its forces from the Chernihiv region.

Investigative journalists Meduza wrote last month, citing several sources close to the Kremlin, that Putin was considering whether to continue the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories or wait for the “liberation” of the entire Donetsk region.