Ukraine War: Russian forces pushed back from country after casualties

Created: 2022-03-25Updated: 2022-03-25 06:42

By: Christian Stör

More bad news for Vladimir Putin from the Ukraine war: Russia's army is said to be retreating in some places.

• In the Ukraine war*, the army of Russia* seems to be retreating in places in the battle for Kyiv*.

• The troops of Russia's President Vladimir Putin* are apparently not able to secure the supply routes to the front in Ukraine*.

• The morale of the Russian army in the Ukraine conflict* is said to be at a low point.

>>> Update news ticker <<<

+++ Update, March 25th, 2022, 6.55 a.m .

: According to the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian troops in north-eastern Ukraine are said to have withdrawn after high losses.

This was announced by the Ukrainian General Staff in its situation report on Friday night (03/25/2022).

Accordingly, one observes the withdrawal of certain Russian units behind the Russian border after the loss of more than half of the personnel.

According to Ukrainian information, Ukrainian forces were also attacked in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Friday night.

Russia has carried out two rocket attacks on a military unit on the outskirts of the city of Dnipro, a local authority in the region said on Facebook.

The unit's buildings were "considerably" damaged and two fires broke out.

There were initially no further details, such as victims.

The information is not independently verifiable.

A destroyed artillery vehicle of the Russian army near Kharkiv (Ukraine).

© Efrem Lukatsky/dpa

Ukraine war: Russia expect high losses

+++ 3.30 p.m .:

According to a report by the US broadcaster CNN, a large number of fallen Russian soldiers simply remain in Ukraine.

In a speech on Saturday, the governor of the region around the embattled city of Mykolaiv, Vitaly Kim, called on the residents to help with the salvage and to put the bodies in sacks.

He spoke of “hundreds” of corpses lying alone in his region and now becoming visible with the snowmelt and the first warm days, the broadcaster said.

"We're not beasts, are we?" Kim wrote.

Mykolayiv, in south-eastern Ukraine, was among the first regional capitals to be attacked since the Russian invasion began on February 24.

According to the report, the Ukrainian government is still waiting to learn from the Russian authorities how the bodies will be brought to Russia.

Many of the Russian soldiers had no documents with them, it was said.

War in Ukraine: Russia has to reckon with up to 40,000 dead and injured soldiers

+++ 3 p.m .:

As reported by the AFP news agency, a high-ranking NATO official said on Wednesday evening (March 24, 2022) that publicly available sources, secret service information and Ukrainian information indicate that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war .

Based on historical experience of the ratio of dead, prisoners and wounded, the total number of Russian sorties can be estimated at 30,000 to 40,000.

The Russian government had previously only given its own losses at a few hundred.

Ukraine War: Morale of Russian troops plummets

+++ 1:11 p.m .:

Ukraine apparently managed to destroy a Russian Navy warship in the war with Russia.

Pictures from the port of the city of Berdyansk in the south of the country showed an explosion and a large column of smoke on Thursday morning.

According to information from Ukrainian authorities and media, the landing ship was part of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

+++ 12.15 p.m .:

Hunger, cold and more and more defeats are causing the morale of the Russian troops in the Ukraine war to drop.

This is reported by the news channel CNN and refers to a secret meeting between representatives of the US military and a general in the Russian army in Moscow*.

In this meeting, General Yevgeny Ilyin is said to have described the situation of the Russian army in Ukraine as "tragic" and "depressing".

This is evident from the minutes of the conversation.

Two embassy officials involved in the meeting told CNN they had "never experienced such an outburst of emotion" in talks with Russian officials.

Ukraine war: Russia in retreat - Ukraine recaptures territories

Update from Thursday, March 24th, 2025, 11.15 a.m .:

The problems for the Russian army are probably increasing more and more.

The Ukrainian army succeeded in pushing back Russian troops in front of Kyiv (see update at 8:45 a.m.).

In addition, British military intelligence stated that Ukraine had “probably recaptured Makariv and Moscow” north-west of the capital.

"There is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin."

Ukraine War: Russian troops stopped at Kyiv

Update from Thursday, March 24th, 2022, 8.45 a.m .:

Western military representatives report that the Ukrainian armed forces have gained ground in the fight against the Russian attackers.

According to a Pentagon representative on Wednesday, the Ukrainian army managed to push back Russian troops east of Kyiv by more than 30 kilometers within 24 hours.

"We're starting to see them entrench and set up defensive positions," he added.

As recently as Tuesday (March 23, 2022), the US Department of Defense stated that the Russian armed forces were still around 20 kilometers from the center of the Ukrainian capital.

Now the representative said, "the Ukrainians managed to push back the Russians 55 kilometers east and north-east of Kyiv".

According to the Pentagon, the Russian armed forces are also not making any headway in the vicinity of the city of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv.

The Russian soldiers were stuck there ten kilometers from the center.

In some areas, the Russian soldiers have recently retreated.

"They are even moving in the opposite direction, but not by much," the ministry official said.

Russian troops continue to face "very, very firm" resistance from Ukrainians in heavily contested Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, he said.

Ukraine war: Russia's army in abysmal condition - forces clash

Update from Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022, 5:00 p.m.:

Ukraine has published an allegedly intercepted phone call intended to prove the catastrophic conditions of the Russian army on the war front.

Two alleged soldiers from Russia talk about the war in Ukraine - and describe to each other the miserable situation in which the Russian army is said to be.

Numerous media reported on the alleged phone call, including the news channel CNN and the Daily Beast portal.

The authenticity cannot be verified at this time.

"It wasn't even that bad in Chechnya," says one of the suspected soldiers.

The defenders from Ukraine would "tear apart" the formations of the Russian army.

More than half of his unit suffer from frostbite on their feet.

"But they are not even taken to the hospital," said the soldier.

Ukraine war: Russia plagues supply problems - invasion comes to a standstill

First report:

Kiev/Moscow – The Russian army is fighting unexpected problems in the Ukraine war.

While at the beginning of the invasion on February 24, 2022, most experts still assumed that Russia would achieve an easy victory over Ukraine, the situation is now very different.

But why is that?

For one thing, Russian President Vladimir Putin has apparently miscalculated and underestimated the resistance of the Ukrainian fighters.

In addition, the Russian army is increasingly struggling to provide its soldiers with sufficient food and petrol.

So it happens again and again that the Russian army has to leave their vehicles without fuel.

Ukraine war: Russia must defend supply routes

This shows the disadvantage of the military strategy that Russia has chosen in the Ukraine conflict.

The Russian army leadership relies on small combat units that can advance quickly.

However, these groups are intended for attack and not for securing their supplies.

The Ukrainians are always able to attack the Russian supply convoys.

Russia is therefore forced to use numerous soldiers only to defend its own supply routes.

The offensive is thus more and more faltering.

An example of a deployment by the Russian commandos near Kyiv.

Throughout March, the Russian military was there, trying to gain a foothold east of the capital.

With Russian forces failing to fully capture the city of Sumy or take control of tracts of land in north-eastern Ukraine, Russian forces had to secure the long line of communication between Russia and Kyiv.

The only way for Russian forces near Sumy to Kyiv is almost 300 kilometers along the H07 highway in the forests, where their convoys are extremely vulnerable to Ukrainian mobile anti-tank units.

Ukraine War: Russian commando ambushed

As Ukraine's online newspaper Kyiv Independent reports, one morning a force of at least five Russian BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles ("Boyevaya Mashina Pechoty 2") and a T-90 tank rushed east towards Rusaniv in an attempt to capture a Conquer bridge over the river Trubisch on the H07 road.

The offensive was doomed to failure.

Ukrainian troops lurked in the woods by the road.

The ambushed T-90 tank burned down just 100 meters from the bridge.

At least two other BMPs tried to escape the ambush and swerved off the road to the meadows closer to the river bank.

They didn't stand a chance.

Ukraine war: Russia suffers from supply problems

So far, the Ukrainian resistance has inflicted heavy casualties on the invaders from Russia over the course of the war.

According to official Ukrainian estimates, Russian forces lost about 15,000 men between February 24 and March 21, more than in Russia's two multi-year wars in Chechnya combined.

US intelligence estimates the number of Russian casualties in Ukraine at 7,000.

How could things continue in view of such loss figures?

Should the supply problems of the Russian army worsen in the coming days of the war, the Russian advance is likely to become increasingly difficult.

This could increase the chance of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

However, it cannot be ruled out that in such a case Vladimir Putin will further intensify the bombing and rocket attacks.

The use of chemical or biological weapons also seems conceivable.

(cs)