BY BRENDAN COLE ON 2/11/23 AT 7:35 AM EST
Vladimir Putin's troops have suffered their highest daily death
toll since the start of their invasion, according to the Ukrainian armed
forces.
In their latest assessment of enemy losses, the General Staff of
the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Saturday that over the previous day, Russia
had lost 1,140 personnel.
This was more than 100 more
than the previous highest tally Kyiv had released on Tuesday when it said that 1,030 troops had died. It takes
Kyiv's total Russian death toll since the war began on February 24, 2022 to
136,880.
The figures have not been
independently verified and Ukraine's total is higher than other Western
estimates. Moscow has not updated the death toll of its troops since the end of
September 2022, when it said that just under 6,000 had died. Newsweek has
contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment
Assessing the death toll from either side is tricky and
Moscow has also claimed that Ukraine has suffered huge losses. With the war
nearly 12 months old, Western officials estimate that Russia is approaching
200,000 casualties—which includes those killed and wounded.
Glen Grant, a military analyst from the Baltic
Security Foundation, said Ukraine had been "pretty consistent in giving
figures that seemed to make sense considering what the battle is."
He told Newsweek that the fighting at the moment was
"the nastiest since those last few days in the attack Kyiv, when both
sides were banging hard against each other."
The increased death
toll among Russian troops chimes with an assessment by independent media outlet Mediazona which
said that there has been a spike in fatalities over the last three weeks. Using
open source data to verify deaths, it said that it needed extra volunteers to
help count the overwhelming number of Russian soldier deaths.
READ MORE
·
Russian bloggers furious commanders are still making the same
mistakes: ISW
·
Russia facing "difficult choice" as troop numbers
dwindle: U.K.
·
Putin's soldiers are dying faster than Russian analysts can count
It follows reports about the deadliest combat
which includes a fierce fight for the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk Oblast, as
well as near Vuhledar, around 30 miles to the southwest.
Serhii Haidai, the Ukrainian head of the
Luhansk region military administration, said this week that Moscow has started
"a certain escalation" in the east of Ukraine, while Kyiv has warned
of an imminent full-scale offensive.
The Institute for the Study of War said this
week that Moscow's "next major offensive" had started in Luhansk
Oblast, which is already largely controlled by Russian forces. Kyiv has warned
that Russia is massing weapons and ammunition ahead of a massive strike by
Putin's troops that could coincide with the first anniversary of the war.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-armed-forces-death-toll-1780566
No comments:
Post a Comment