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Kiev: The head of the Russian Special Army, Wagner, said his force had lost more than 20,000 fighters in the long battle for Bakhmutwith about 20% of the 50,000 Russians he recruited to fight in the 15-month war dying in the eastern Ukrainian city.
The figure starkly contrasts with widely disputed claims by Moscow that it lost just over 6,000 soldiers in the war, which is higher than the official estimate of Soviet losses in the Afghanistan war of 15,000 soldiers between 1979 and 1989. Ukraine has not said how many of its soldiers died. Since the full Russian invasion in February 2022.
Analysts believe that the nine months of fighting for Bakhmut alone took the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, including convicts who reportedly had little training before being sent to the front.
Russia’s invasion goal of “demilitarizing” Ukraine backfired because Kyiv’s army got stronger with weapons and training provided by its Western allies, Chief Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin In an interview published late Tuesday with Konstantin Dolgov, a pro-Kremlin political strategist.
Prigozhin also said that Kremlin forces killed civilians during the war, something Moscow has repeatedly denied.
Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman with long ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is known for his boasting — often spiced with swear words — and has previously made unverifiable claims, some of which he later retracted.
Earlier this month, his spokesmen released a video of him screaming, swearing, and pointing at about 30 uniformed corpses lying on the ground, saying they were Wagner fighters who died in a single day. He claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defense starved his men of ammunition and threatened to give up the fight for Bakhmut.
He also said in an interview on Tuesday that it was possible that the expected counteroffensive in Kiev in the coming weeks, given continued Western support, could push Russian forces out of southern and eastern Ukraine as well as annexed Crimea.
He said, “A pessimistic scenario: the Ukrainians are given missiles, they are preparing the forces, of course they will continue their offensive, they will try to counterattack. They will attack Crimea, they will try to blow up the Crimean bridge (to Russia’s mainland), cut off (our) supply lines. Therefore, We need to prepare for a tough war.”
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Wednesday that “heavy fighting” was continuing inside Bakhmut, days after Russia announced it had fully captured the devastated city.
Bakhmut is located in Donetsk Province, one of four provinces that Russia illegally annexed last fall and only partially controls.
The commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, Oleksandr Sersky, said that Kiev forces were “continuing their defensive operation” in Bakhmut, and had achieved unspecified “successes” on the outskirts of the city. He did not give enough details.
Ukrainian officials insisted that the Battle of Bakhmut was far from over.
A Ukrainian commander in Pakhmut told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the Ukrainians have a plan to expel the Russians from all occupied territories.
But now we do not need to fight at Bakhmut, we need to surround it from the flanks and block it, ”said Yevgeny Mizvikin. “Then we have to sweep it up. That’s more appropriate, and that’s what we’re doing now.”
Elsewhere, Russian forces shot down a “large number” of drones in Russia’s southern Belgorod region, a local official said Wednesday, a day after Moscow said its forces had crushed a cross-border raid in the region from Ukraine.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on Telegram that the drones were intercepted overnight over the province, and another one was shot down Wednesday outside the local capital, also called Belgorod. He said that no one was hurt, but administrative buildings, residential buildings, and unspecified cars were damaged.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment.
Gladkov, the region’s governor, said on Wednesday he had “questions to the (Russian) Defense Ministry” in the wake of the attack, which reportedly sparked panic among local residents and embarrassed the Kremlin.
During a question-and-answer session with residents on social media, Gladkov agreed with a participant who said the actions of the Russian military in Belgorod “raised some questions.”
In Moscow, the Russian Minister of Defense, Sergey Shoiguvowed to respond “quickly and very harshly” to such attacks in the future.
Russia said the day before it had repelled one of the most serious cross-border attacks of the war, with the defense ministry saying more than 70 attackers were killed in a battle in the Belgorod region that lasted about 24 hours. He did not mention any Russian casualties.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said local forces, air strikes and artillery had defeated the attackers.
Officials said 12 local civilians were injured in the attack, and an elderly woman died during an evacuation.
Details of the incident, which took place in the rural area 80 kilometers (45 miles) north of the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and far from the front lines of the nearly 15-month-old war, are unclear.
Moscow blamed the incursion, which began on Monday, on Ukrainian military saboteurs. Kiev described it as an uprising of Russian supporters against the Kremlin. It was impossible to reconcile the two accounts, to say with certainty who was behind the attack or to be certain of its aims.
The area is a Russian military center with fuel and ammunition depots. Officials in Moscow declined to say how many attackers were involved in the attack or comment on why it took so long to crack down on the attackers.
The Belgorod region, like the neighboring Bryansk region and other border regions, has seen sporadic fallout from the war that Russia started with its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian presidential office reported that at least three civilians were killed and 18 others wounded in Ukraine on Tuesday and overnight, including in the southern Kherson region where two elderly people died in airstrikes.
The figure starkly contrasts with widely disputed claims by Moscow that it lost just over 6,000 soldiers in the war, which is higher than the official estimate of Soviet losses in the Afghanistan war of 15,000 soldiers between 1979 and 1989. Ukraine has not said how many of its soldiers died. Since the full Russian invasion in February 2022.
Analysts believe that the nine months of fighting for Bakhmut alone took the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, including convicts who reportedly had little training before being sent to the front.
Russia’s invasion goal of “demilitarizing” Ukraine backfired because Kyiv’s army got stronger with weapons and training provided by its Western allies, Chief Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin In an interview published late Tuesday with Konstantin Dolgov, a pro-Kremlin political strategist.
Prigozhin also said that Kremlin forces killed civilians during the war, something Moscow has repeatedly denied.
Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman with long ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is known for his boasting — often spiced with swear words — and has previously made unverifiable claims, some of which he later retracted.
Earlier this month, his spokesmen released a video of him screaming, swearing, and pointing at about 30 uniformed corpses lying on the ground, saying they were Wagner fighters who died in a single day. He claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defense starved his men of ammunition and threatened to give up the fight for Bakhmut.
He also said in an interview on Tuesday that it was possible that the expected counteroffensive in Kiev in the coming weeks, given continued Western support, could push Russian forces out of southern and eastern Ukraine as well as annexed Crimea.
He said, “A pessimistic scenario: the Ukrainians are given missiles, they are preparing the forces, of course they will continue their offensive, they will try to counterattack. They will attack Crimea, they will try to blow up the Crimean bridge (to Russia’s mainland), cut off (our) supply lines. Therefore, We need to prepare for a tough war.”
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Wednesday that “heavy fighting” was continuing inside Bakhmut, days after Russia announced it had fully captured the devastated city.
Bakhmut is located in Donetsk Province, one of four provinces that Russia illegally annexed last fall and only partially controls.
The commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, Oleksandr Sersky, said that Kiev forces were “continuing their defensive operation” in Bakhmut, and had achieved unspecified “successes” on the outskirts of the city. He did not give enough details.
Ukrainian officials insisted that the Battle of Bakhmut was far from over.
A Ukrainian commander in Pakhmut told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the Ukrainians have a plan to expel the Russians from all occupied territories.
But now we do not need to fight at Bakhmut, we need to surround it from the flanks and block it, ”said Yevgeny Mizvikin. “Then we have to sweep it up. That’s more appropriate, and that’s what we’re doing now.”
Elsewhere, Russian forces shot down a “large number” of drones in Russia’s southern Belgorod region, a local official said Wednesday, a day after Moscow said its forces had crushed a cross-border raid in the region from Ukraine.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on Telegram that the drones were intercepted overnight over the province, and another one was shot down Wednesday outside the local capital, also called Belgorod. He said that no one was hurt, but administrative buildings, residential buildings, and unspecified cars were damaged.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment.
Gladkov, the region’s governor, said on Wednesday he had “questions to the (Russian) Defense Ministry” in the wake of the attack, which reportedly sparked panic among local residents and embarrassed the Kremlin.
During a question-and-answer session with residents on social media, Gladkov agreed with a participant who said the actions of the Russian military in Belgorod “raised some questions.”
In Moscow, the Russian Minister of Defense, Sergey Shoiguvowed to respond “quickly and very harshly” to such attacks in the future.
Russia said the day before it had repelled one of the most serious cross-border attacks of the war, with the defense ministry saying more than 70 attackers were killed in a battle in the Belgorod region that lasted about 24 hours. He did not mention any Russian casualties.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said local forces, air strikes and artillery had defeated the attackers.
Officials said 12 local civilians were injured in the attack, and an elderly woman died during an evacuation.
Details of the incident, which took place in the rural area 80 kilometers (45 miles) north of the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and far from the front lines of the nearly 15-month-old war, are unclear.
Moscow blamed the incursion, which began on Monday, on Ukrainian military saboteurs. Kiev described it as an uprising of Russian supporters against the Kremlin. It was impossible to reconcile the two accounts, to say with certainty who was behind the attack or to be certain of its aims.
The area is a Russian military center with fuel and ammunition depots. Officials in Moscow declined to say how many attackers were involved in the attack or comment on why it took so long to crack down on the attackers.
The Belgorod region, like the neighboring Bryansk region and other border regions, has seen sporadic fallout from the war that Russia started with its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian presidential office reported that at least three civilians were killed and 18 others wounded in Ukraine on Tuesday and overnight, including in the southern Kherson region where two elderly people died in airstrikes.
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