As of: February 21, 2024, 12:11 p.m
By: Nadja Zinsmeister
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Press
Split
For four months, Ukraine and Russia fought bloody battles in Avdiivka.
What price Russia really paid for the victory.
Kiev - Russia is said to have lost more than 17,000 soldiers in just four months during its fighting for the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk city of Avdiivka.
As several media outlets report, citing Dmytro Lykhovii, spokesman for the Ukrainian unit in Avdiivka, another 30,000 Russian soldiers are said to have been wounded.
The number cannot be independently confirmed because Russia provides little information about its own losses in the Ukraine war.
The British online portal
The Independet
initially reported on the high number of Russian deaths.
If the information from Kiev is correct, this means that Russia lost more soldiers in the battle for Avdiivka than during the ten-year occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. In comparison, the offensive in eastern Ukraine lasted just under four months.
It started around October 10, 2023 and finally ended with the Russian takeover of the city on February 17.
Russians lose more soldiers in four months of battle for Avdiivka than in ten years of war in Afghanistan
In 1979, during the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union sent thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan to intervene in the civil war there.
What was planned as a short operation ultimately developed into a conflict that lasted almost 10 years.
According to official figures, Russian losses amount to more than 15,000 lives.
The Federal Agency for Civic Education
also
refers to this estimate in its information.
A Russian soldier walks through destroyed streets in Avdiivka.
© Stanislav Krasilnikov/IMAGO
Of course, the two wars initially seem very different.
Nick Reynolds, research fellow for ground warfare at the
Royal United Services Institute
think tank in London, still sees the comparison of Russian death figures then and now as a “valid comparison”.
As he told the news portal
Newsweek
, the comparison would highlight the high death toll in the largest land war in Europe since World War II.
In both cases, Moscow provided enormous resources for its military.
The small industrial town of Avdiivka was a symbol of resistance for Ukraine against its attackers, among other things because the Russian-controlled pro-Russian separatists had already taken Avdiivka in July 2014, but Ukrainian units took it back under their control shortly afterwards.
Avdiivka is located about ten kilometers from the regional capital Donetsk.
After months of bitter fighting, the Ukrainian army finally began withdrawing on Saturday night.
However, the Ukrainian defensive positions, some of which were built in 2014, inflicted heavy losses on Russia despite the victory.
Russian losses after the battle for Avdiivka are said to be enormous - official estimates are difficult
Overall, information on losses in the Ukraine war must be viewed with particular caution, as information from the “enemies” often does not match the information provided by the respective governments.
The last official figures were announced in mid-2022.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in September 2022 that 5,937 Russian soldiers had died.
According to information from Kiev, around 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed by August 2022.
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Since then, estimates of the number of victims have often come from foreign secret services.
In August 2023, The
New York Times
quoted US officials as putting Ukraine's military losses at 70,000 dead and between 100,000 and 200,000 injured.
According to the same source, 120,000 soldiers were killed and 170,000 to 180,000 injured on the Russian side.