It has been 371 days since the Russian invasion began. On Wednesday, the Russian forces continue to push in the Donbas in search of a breakthrough.
Repeated assaults, minimal progress
The Russian commanders continue to dedicate troops and resources in the large-scale offensive in the Donbas. However, the progress of the Russian forces is minimal, despite the extremely heavy casualties. Since the new year started, the Russian forces have been averaging about 500 casualties (killed and wounded) a day. On days at the highest spectrum of casualties, the Russian forces have lost more than 1,000 troops.
Over the past 24 hours, Russian troops have made some tactical gains north of Bakhmut. The fighting is now taking place in the suburbs of the Ukrainian town. For the past several weeks, the Russian military has been trying to cut off the two major lines of communication and supply that lead into the town and encircle the Ukrainian defenders.
In the east, the Russian forces continued with their local assaults in the vicinity of Svatove and Kreminna, where they have made some advances. The Ukrainian military has been trying to reach Svatove through Kreminna since September.
In the south, the situation has remained the same. Both sides are getting ready for large-scale operations.
Russian casualties
Every day, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is providing an update on its claimed Russian casualties. These numbers are official figures and haven’t been separately verified.
However, Western intelligence assessments and independent reporting corroborate, to a certain extent, the Ukrainian casualty claims. For example, the Oryx open-source intelligence research page has visually verified the destruction or capture of close to 1,700 Russian tanks (which amounts to more tanks than the combined armor capabilities of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) and more than 8,300 weapon systems of all types; this assessment has been confirmed by the British Ministry of Defense.
The same independent verification exists for most of the other Ukrainian claims. Recently, the Pentagon acknowledged that the Russian military has lost thousands of combat vehicles of all types, including over 1,000 tanks, and dozens of fighter jets and helicopters.
In November, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley shared the U.S. military’s assessment that the Russian military has lost way more than 100,000 troops so far in the war. But U.S. officials revised this assessment in February. According to U.S. intelligence, Russia has lost almost 200,000 troops killed or wounded in the conflict so far.
Yet, proper casualty figures are still hard to compute and verify given the fog and friction of war.
As of Wednesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is claiming the following Russian casualties:
- 149,890 Russian troops killed (approximately three times that number wounded and captured)
- 6,638 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles destroyed
- 5,257 vehicles and fuel tanks
- 3,395 tanks
- 2,393 artillery pieces
- 2,055 tactical unmanned aerial systems
- 873 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses
- 479 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS)
- 300 fighter, attack, and transport jets
- 288 attack and transport helicopters
- 247 anti-aircraft batteries
- 230 special equipment platforms, such as bridging equipment
- 18 boats and cutters
- four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems
On Wednesday, Ukrainian forces continued to inflict the heaviest in the direction of Bakhmut, which is located in the south of the Donbas, and along the Kreminna-Svatove line in the east.
The stated goal of the Russian military for the renewed offensive in the east is to establish full control over the pro-Russian breakaway territories of Donetsk and Luhansk and create and maintain a land corridor between these territories and the occupied Crimea.
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Russia is about done with Ukraine having met over 90% of their objectives. Western propaganda can no longer contain this fact. Good bye house of the Red Shield.
And the Easter Bunny lays eggs!
I sincerely urge you to join the foreign service, and go help the Ukrainians in the West go kill the Ukrainians in the East. They will be happy to have you. Like I said, the pay is pretty good. Be sure to learn a few phrases of Russian, it may come in handy should you be captured. Where is the bathroom, you are crazy, I am hungry, that sort of thing…, and don’t forget to shove $300.00 USD and a copy of your passport in your underwear so you have something of use when you realize that you have joined a military exercise of the absurd, and feel the need to find an escape route. On your way out, be sure to watch for the snipers, who actively look for deserters. With that, I wish you good luck. Semper Fi amigo.
The ‘break away territories’ are not pro-Russian. The internal conflict was another of those political hoaxes, orchestrated by Moscow. Nobody free of Russia (including normal Russians themselves) wants back in.
Too funny. In one paragraph the author claims that 1700 Russian tanks were destroyed. By the next it’s only 1000, and in the following it’s magically jumped up to nearly 3500! Seriously? What kind of fool would you have to be to believe any of the figures that this dolt is “reporting”? Rotflmao
One other detail. The gruesome deaths of close to 500,000 uncles, brothers, and fathers. Are you implying that these deaths are a good thing?
How else do you stop invaders who destroy cities, rape women, mutilate and kidnap kids. You’re on the wrong side of the looking glass. So the short answer to your absurd question is ‘YES!’
You are absolutely right. You should enlist as a mercenary, and then you can go kill as many Ukrainians and Russians as you want. The pay is pretty good as well. All in all, a pretty good deal.
By the way Stavros, let’s not forget. This war started in 2014 when Ukrainians in the West started to kill their fellow Ukranians in the East. People should have a right of self determination. It is not complicated. The Czechs and the Slovaks managed to split up without firing a single shot. What is the problem here? This is not a war between Russia and Ukraine, This has always been a war between West and East Ukraine. Don’t paint it as solely Russian agression. At this point it is as much American agression as it is Russian agression. To that, there was plenty of agression long before the Russian tanks arrived on the scene. It is a ship of fools with no one at the helm.
You’ve drunk deeply of the Russian creep’s KoolAid.
The kool aid is sweet heh, what a load of Putinist lies!
Whatever Stavros. Is that why the Ukrainians are conscripting anything with two legs that is able to carry a rifle? As a matter of fact, the Ukranians are winning so much that they have to beg for munitions and armor from their wealthy benefactors. Send in more tanks Olaf! The Russians broke everything that you sent last month. What a humanitarian dumpster fire… The human animal is the only species that actively undermines its’ prosperity and well being in the eternal pursuit of political power and financial wealth. In the immortal words of Charlton Heston “God damn you all to hell”.
The war is protracted because France and Germany refuse to supply Ukraine with the weapons they need. Germany will suffer unemployment, inflation, and poverty unless Germany changes.
You continue to fail with the lying propaganda.gtfoh.