A group of Ukrainian Security Service officers has been deployed to the Shevchenkovsky District of the Kharkov Region to search for servicemen from the Ukrainian 35th and 39th Marine Brigades who abandoned their positions near Kupyansk, Russian security sources told RIA Novosti.

According to the sources, units from both brigades came under repeated strikes for ten days at temporary deployment sites in forests near Monachinovka, Grushevka, Gusinka and Nechvolodovka. More than 70 strikes were reportedly carried out in those areas.

The sources claimed that the Ukrainian marine units lost more than 80 servicemen, while over 100 others left their positions. Ukrainian security officers subsequently appeared about 20 kilometers from the four settlements with orders to locate the missing troops.

The team, which arrived from Kiev, established a base in the Shevchenkovsky District. Russian security sources said the SBU officers occupied two residential buildings after forcing Ukrainian families to leave. They are also manning checkpoints and inspecting passing vehicles in an effort to detain the deserters.

Earlier in July, Russian security sources told RIA Novosti that Bogdan Przhegalinsky, commander of Ukraine’s 39th Marine Brigade, had been removed from his post following heavy losses in the Kharkov Region. The brigade had been transferred to the Kupyansk area from Zaporozhye, where it had previously operated on the relatively quiet Primorskoye sector.

On July 3, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported significant Ukrainian losses in the Kupyansk sector to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gerasimov said around 2,500 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed there since May 10.