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Heavy casualties for Russia: Putin may resort to 'unconventional' warfare

2022-08-20T02:55:17.021Z


Severe losses for Russia in the Donbass too - soldiers apparently refuse to do military service Created: 2022-08-20 04:47 By: Karolin Schäfer, Nadja Austel, Christian Stör The Russian losses in the Ukraine war are devastating. On the Black Sea, half the Luftwaffe is useless. How will Putin react? The news ticker. Russia has suffered heavy losses in the Ukraine war. How will Vladimir Putin reac


Severe losses for Russia in the Donbass too - soldiers apparently refuse to do military service

Created: 2022-08-20 04:47

By: Karolin Schäfer, Nadja Austel, Christian Stör

The Russian losses in the Ukraine war are devastating.

On the Black Sea, half the Luftwaffe is useless.

How will Putin react?

The news ticker.

  • Russia has suffered heavy losses in the Ukraine war.

  • How will Vladimir Putin react to the losses of Russian forces in Ukraine?

  • Editor

     's note: Some of the information on the Ukraine conflict comes from warring factions and cannot be directly checked independently.

+++ 9:00 p.m .:

Russia had to take setbacks again.

Ukrainian defenders repelled all attacks by Russian aggressors in Donbass on Friday, Ukrainian news portal

pravda.com

quoted the region's general staff as saying.

This prevented a breakthrough attempt on the border to the Cherson and Mykolaiv regions, it was said.

In the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, on the other hand, civilian infrastructure was destroyed in numerous settlements by Russian artillery attacks.

According to the Ukrainian civil protection service, 21 people were killed there.

Ukrainian firefighters work in destroyed buildings in Kharkov after a rocket attack last night.

According to local authorities, several people have been killed in the past two days.

© Andrii Marienko/dpa

War in Ukraine: Heavy losses for Russia - Hundreds of soldiers are apparently refusing military service

+++ 18:44:

Russia's losses in the Ukraine war also seem to have an impact on the morale of the soldiers.

The independent Russian news portal

iStories

reports that since the war began, hundreds of Russian soldiers have refused to fight in Ukraine.

In order to bring them back to the front, they were threatened with criminal proceedings or taken to refusal camps.

There, Russian soldiers would have captured their own people, beat them, threatened them with death and finally brought them back to the front against their will.

He is quoted from an interview with a Russian deserter: “We are fascists, I know that.

I'm ashamed that I was blind the whole time."

The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope

View photo gallery

+++ 17.46:

Apparently Russia had to accept heavy losses in the attacks on Crimea.

According to journalist Emma Burrows on Twitter, a spokesman informed a press briefing by Western secret services that more than half of the Russian air force on the Black Sea had been rendered useless by a Ukrainian attack in Crimea.

In addition, the Russian army is "slowly running out of ammunition," Burrows continues, quoting the secret service official.

There is a “long series of evidence for this.” The Ukraine conflict is therefore currently almost at a standstill.

The Ukrainian attacks behind Russian lines had a "significant psychological effect on the Russian leadership".

News on the Ukraine war: Putin could resort to "unconventional" warfare

+++ 2:00 p.m .:

While the Kremlin is stubbornly silent about the losses of its own troops, the Ukrainian general staff publishes a new inventory every day.

The data refer to human and material losses since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24.

According to this, almost 44,700 Russian soldiers fell in battle.

In addition, almost 1900 tanks and more than 1000 artillery systems were destroyed.

An overview of the data reported by the news portals

Kyiv Independent

and

Nexta

:

also read

Putin's losses in the Ukraine war: Pentagon provides new figures - "quite remarkable"

Ex-intelligence chief: Vladimir Putin will experience an 'unpleasant end'

  • Soldiers: 

    44,700

  • Aircraft:

     234

  • Helicopters:

     197

  • Tank:

     1899

  • Armored Fighting Vehicles:

     4195

  • Artillery systems:

     1016

  • Air defense systems: 

    141

  • Multiple rocket launcher systems:

     266

  • Cars and other vehicles:

     3130

  • Ships:

     15

  • Unmanned Combat Drones:

     795

  • As of Friday 19 August 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.

Heavy losses for Russia: Kremlin keeps a low profile

First report from Friday, August 19:

Moscow/Kiev – The Ukraine war is gradually becoming a nightmare for Russia.

Above all, the number of their own losses is immensely high.

According to Ukrainian data, as of August 18, around 44,700 Russian soldiers have died in combat.

Colin Kahl assesses the situation as even more extreme.

The US Department of Defense official put the number of Russian casualties at around 80,000 in early August.

For comparison: According to official figures, the Soviet Union lost around 13,300 soldiers in the almost ten-year war in Afghanistan.

But these are all just estimates.

The Russian side has not released any information on their own losses for a long time.

The last information is from March 25th.

“Unfortunately, in the course of the military special operation, our combat comrades lost their lives.

As of today, 1,351 soldiers have died and 3,825 have been wounded,” the Russian Ministry of Defense reported at the time.

Since then, the Kremlin has remained stubbornly silent on the subject.

Heavy losses for Russia: how does Putin react?

In view of the Russian losses, the question also arises as to how Vladimir Putin will react in the long term.

A British military expert has now suggested that the Russian president may resort to desperate measures as casualties in Ukraine mount.

British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told

GB News

on Thursday (18 August) that the Russian war effort was going "very badly" and that Ukraine appears to be gaining the upper hand at the moment.

But Putin probably believes that he "cannot afford" a military failure in Ukraine.

That would be the end for him.

Heavy losses for Russia: what is happening at the Zaporizhia NPP?

According to de Bretton-Gordon, the Russians' conventional warfare had failed.

“We can see how many tanks and troops they lost.

And they are now losing ground as well, which is why it is of increasing concern that the Russians could turn to unconventional – that is, asymmetric – warfare.”

Specifically, de Bretton-Gordon referred to the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, which was occupied by Russian troops.

He says the threats from Russian officials indicate that a nuclear incident may be on the horizon.

Most recently, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of planning an attack.

(cs)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-20

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