SIMFEROPOL, August 7. /TASS/. Ukraine has lost roughly 40 settlements during Vladimir Zelensky’s 40-day plan, intended to create the impression of military success and obtain additional support from Western allies, retired Major General Leonid Ivlev, a State Duma lawmaker from Crimea, told TASS.

"The ‘40 days of forcing Russia to peace,’ announced by Zelensky, are over. During these 40 days, the Kiev regime reshuffled the government, dismissed the defense minister, appointed a new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian forces, lost hundreds of gas stations and dozens of locomotives. While retreating along the entire engagement line, it lost Konstantinovka, Krasny Liman and about 40 other settlements, the Russian army has now reached the outskirts of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, and Kiev faces a full-scale naval blockade, despite ongoing arms supplies and loans from Western European countries," Ivlev said.

He noted that Ukraine’s territorial, infrastructural and personnel losses are taking place amid corruption, including the plundering of weapons supplied by Western countries, which then end up on the black market.