War in Ukraine: Reports of "poor moral-psychological condition" among Russian soldiers
Created: 07/18/2022, 04:49 am
By: Sandra Kathe, Tim Vincent Dicke, Nail Akkoyun, Lucas Maier
In the Ukraine war, Russia has to deal with high losses.
The morale of Russian troops is also said to suffer massively.
The news ticker.
Russia continues to attack Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin's troops are concentrating on the east in the Ukraine war.
Weapons deliveries from the NATO area, the EU and the USA are severely affecting Russia in the Ukraine conflict.
Editor's note:
Some of the information comes from warring factions and cannot be directly verified independently.
+++ 8:58 p.m .:
When trying to storm several towns around the cities of Siwersk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, the Russian military is said to have suffered significant losses according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to the report in the Ukrainian news portal Kyiv Independent, the attackers were forced to retreat by the resistance of the Ukrainians.
The general staff also increasingly reported at the weekend that the Russian armed forces were in a “very bad moral and psychological state”, which was also due to the loss of personnel as a result of the Ukrainian resistance.
Again and again, soldiers were "looking for a way to avoid participating in further combat operations".
These representations cannot be independently verified.
Many Russian vehicles still proudly display the letter “Z” symbolizing victory in Ukraine, but soldiers' morale is reportedly dwindling.
(Iconic photo) © Olga Maltseva/AFP
Ukraine war: Russia 'has lost 30 percent of its combat capability'
+++ 4.42 p.m .:
In the Ukraine war, which has been going on for almost five months, Russia has already lost 30 percent of its combat capability on land, according to information from the British Ministry of Defence.
This was reported by the chief of the British Defense Staff, Sir Tony Radakin, on the BBC Morning Show on Sunday.
According to the Navy Admiral, around 50,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the war began at the end of February and have thus been rendered unable to fight.
This development gives the Ukrainian armed forces reason to hope that they can still win the war - despite the significant difference in size between the two countries.
Radakin also sees a realistic chance for Ukraine to make up for initial land losses: "Russia launched this invasion with the ambition to take over all of Ukraine, to conquer the Ukrainian cities in the first 30 days."
In addition, Russia had the plan to put pressure on NATO and create tensions among the members, Radakin summarized the plans of the Russian government under Vladimir Putin.
In fact, however, all of these plans were in danger of failing, emphasizes the admiral: "Today, Russia is a much smaller nation than it was at the beginning of February."
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Ukraine War News: Russian Equipment Destroyed
Update from Sunday, July 17, 12 noon:
According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia has lost around 38,300 military personnel, 1,684 tanks and a significant amount of other military equipment in the course of its large-scale military invasion of Ukraine as of today.
Compared to Saturday (July 16), 160 more Russian forces are said to have been killed.
In addition, seven tanks and five combat vehicles could be destroyed.
The information could not be independently verified.
+++ 9:02 p.m .:
When attempting an air attack on the south-east of Ukraine, the Ukrainian air defense intercepted and destroyed four of the six Russian missiles launched from the Caspian Sea.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Air Force on Saturday.
The two unintercepted rockets damaged a farm in the Cherkasy region, according to the report.
The number of Russian equipment destroyed and Russian soldiers killed rose again on Saturday.
The Ukrainian armed forces are now reporting 38,140 dead and around 1,000 captured Russian soldiers, the number of destroyed air force unmanned aerial vehicles has increased by 6 to 687, and that of destroyed artillery systems by 4 to 846.
Ukraine war: Russia reports false success stories
+++ 4.55 p.m .:
In addition to the number of victims from the ranks of the Russian armed forces, which is clearly too low, British secret service employees have now also shown false information about alleged military successes to Russia.
According to the secret service experts, the scope and extent of the Russian advances in Ukraine are still limited, and the city of Siwersk, as claimed by Russia, has not been captured.
"Russia has also previously made hasty and false claims of success," the UK Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The reason for this is probably at least in part the desire to demonstrate successes to the Russian population and to strengthen the morale of their own troops, which is said to be clearly weakened.
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression at the end of February, the British government has regularly published intelligence information on the course.
Moscow accuses London of a targeted disinformation campaign.
News in the Ukraine war: armed forces succeed in destroying military bases and fighter jets
Update from Saturday, July 16, 7 a.m.:
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, "more than 30 Russian military bases" have been destroyed with rocket launchers in the past few weeks.
This emerges from a Telegram post.
More detailed information, such as the locations of the destroyed military bases, was not given.
As is so often the case, the information cannot be independently verified for the time being.
News about the war: Ukrainian army shoots down Russian fighter jets - "precisely hit"
+++ 18:36:
According to their own statements, fighters from the Ukrainian army shot down two Russian fighter planes in the Zaporizhia region.
“Recently, near settlements such as Orikhiv and Stepove, the enemy tried to attack the Ukrainian positions with two Su-25 aircraft.
But our fighters acted in advance and accurately hit enemy planes with man-portable anti-aircraft systems," the Ukrainian side said in a statement.
One plane was completely destroyed, the other was damaged.
War News: Ukraine demolishes Russia's HQ in Kherson
Update from Friday, July 15, 2:30 p.m .:
Another severe blow against the Russian occupiers in the Cherson region is reported by Ukraine.
A headquarters and barracks are said to have been destroyed in Nova Mayachka, according to adviser to the head of the Kherson regional military administration, Serhii Khlan.
The attack by Ukrainian forces is said to have taken place at 10 p.m. yesterday (July 14), Khlan reported via social media.
The number of victims on the Russian side is not yet known.
The information could not be independently verified.
First report from Friday, July 15:
Cherson - The Ukraine war rages on incessantly.
The armed forces of Ukraine repeatedly inflict heavy losses on the aggressors from Russia.
In southern Ukraine, Russia is said to have lost several ammunition depots to weapon systems from the West in recent days, according to the troops behind Volodymyr Zelenskyj.
Ukraine-News: Russia has to take heavy losses in the south
The report by the Operations Command "South" on Thursday (July 14) speaks of heavy losses for the troops from Russia, including six armored vehicles, a "Gvozdika" howitzer and a field ammunition depot.
The Himar missile systems from the USA are said to have caused many losses on the side of Russia, as
Al-Jazeera
writes.
The current attacks on depots behind enemy lines may indicate that the Russian occupiers are about to launch a counter-offensive in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.
Ukraine War: Information from Russia is rare
While Russia itself rarely reports losses in its own ranks, the Ukrainian army regularly publishes figures on Russian losses.
It was recently announced that around 38,000 soldiers who fought under the Russian flag have lost their lives in the Ukraine war so far.
The losses at a glance:
Soldiers:
38,300
Aircraft:
220
Helicopters:
188
Tanks:
1684
Panzerkampfwagen:
3879
Artillery systems:
846
Air defense systems:
110
Multiple rocket launcher systems:
248
Cars and other vehicles:
2746
Ships:
15
Unmanned combat drones:
688
As of Sunday 17 July 2022
The information on Russia's losses in the Ukraine war comes from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
They cannot be independently verified.
The Kremlin itself gives very little information about its own losses.
It remains to be seen whether Russia's losses will continue to increase.
Ex-General Frederick Ben Hodges recently predicted defeat for Russia.
(Lucas Maier)
