The Ukrainian military is attacking Kherson

It has been 188 days since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian military is pushing with its counteroffensive against Kherson.

Next stop, Kherson

After weeks of softening the Russian positions on the southern front with long-range fires, the Ukrainian military has finally launched its counteroffensive against Kherson.

Ukrainian military officials announced the operation to recapture the strategic Ukrainian city on Monday. Reports from the ground indicate that the Ukrainian forces have broken through the first lines of the Russian defenses and are advancing toward the city. The Ukrainian military is advancing from five directions.

The situation in and around Kherson. (ISW)

The Ukrainian forces have used their M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) long-range artillery weapon systems to take out key Russian military targets in the vicinity of Kherson.

Meanwhile, the Russian military is conducting limited ground assaults in the Donbas but is failing to achieve any significant gains.

Russian casualties

Every day, the Ukrainian military is providing an update on their 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 almost 1,000 Russian tanks (which amounts to more tanks than the combined armor capabilities of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) and more than 5,300 military vehicles 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.

Furthermore, more recent reports that are citing Western intelligence officials indicate that the Russian military has suffered up to 20,000 fatalities in the war so far. Sir Tony Radakin, the British Chief of the Defence Staff, recently told the BBC that the West understands that more than 50,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the conflict thus far. If we were to take the Ukrainian figures as accurate, the number mentioned by Sir Radakin is on the low side of the spectrum.

Russian military vehicles getting bombed — Russian military vehicles bombed by Ukrainian forces in March 2022. (Ministry of Defense of Ukraine)

Yet, it is very hard to verify the actual numbers unless one is on the ground. However, after adjusting for the fog of war and other factors, the Western official numbers are fairly close to the Ukrainian claims.

As of Tuesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is claiming the following Russian casualties:

47,550 Russian troops killed (approximately three times that number wounded and captured)
4,294 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles destroyed
3,217 vehicles and fuel tanks
1,954 tanks
1,079 artillery pieces
847 tactical unmanned aerial systems
234 fighter, attack, and transport jets
282 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS)
204 attack and transport helicopters
196 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses
151 anti-aircraft batteries
103 special equipment platforms, such as bridging equipment
15 boats and cutters
four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems

Over the past weeks, the rate of Russian casualties has slowed down despite continuous pressure and offensive operations in the Donbas. This suggests two things: First, the Russian commanders are taking a more cautious approach to their offensive operations, fully utilizing combined arms warfare to achieve their goals; and second, the Ukrainian forces are running out of combat power or ammunition — and this is expected after six months of war against the Russian military. Recent reports from the ground suggest that both of these factors are true, and that the fatigue of warfare is catching up on both sides.

Burning car Ukraine — A burning car in the Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

For most of May, the Russian military suffered the greatest casualties around the Slovyansk, Kryvyi Rih, and Zaporizhzhia areas, reflecting the heavy fighting that was going on there. As the days and weeks went on, most of the heavy fighting shifted toward the direction of Bakhmut, southeast of Slovyansk, around Severodonetsk, Lyman, and Lysychansk.

Then the location of the heaviest casualties shifted again westwards toward the area of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — where one of Europe’s largest nuclear plants is located — as a result of a Ukrainian counteroffensive in and around the area.

Then, the concentration of casualties once more shifted back to the Donbas, and especially in and around Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, the two urban centers the Russians managed to capture lately.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces continued to inflict the heaviest casualties in the direction of Donetsk City and Kurakhove.

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.

Feature Image: Ukrainian tanks in 2015. (Photo by Taras Gren/Ministry of Defense of Ukraine)

Author

Stavros Atlamazoglou

Greek Army veteran (National service with 575th Marines Battalion and Army HQ). Johns Hopkins University. You will usually find him on the top of a mountain admiring the view and wondering how he got there.

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