RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine has lost 90,000 men since June – Putin

The Ukrainian military has lost more than 90,000 troops since its counteroffensive against Russian forces began in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday. 

“Since June 4 alone, Ukrainian units have already lost over 90,000 people,” Putin told a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, noting that this number includes both deaths and incapacitations. 

Ukraine has also lost 557 tanks and almost 1,900 armored vehicles in the same timeframe, Putin added.

The counteroffensive began on June 4 with a series of Ukrainian advances along the frontline between Kherson and Donetsk. The operation quickly ran into trouble, however, as Ukrainian units advanced headlong through minefields to meet multiple layers of Russian trenches, tank traps, and gun emplacements. With no air support to cover the repeated Ukrainian assaults, Kiev’s troops were exposed to attacks by Russian artillery, helicopters, and drones.

After adjusting their tactics several times, Ukrainian units managed to capture a handful of villages near Zaporozhye in August, although losses remained high. Western-supplied tanks were destroyed from afar by Russian drones and missiles, and Ukraine lost 17,000 men in September alone, according to figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Western officials have publicly acknowledged that the counteroffensive did not proceed as they would have hoped, and media reports suggest that the operation is viewed as a failure in the US and Europe. Even though heavy autumn rains will soon make progress on the battlefield extremely difficult, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has vowed to keep the offensive going into the winter.

The Ukrainian military does not publish its own casualty figures, although some estimates have leaked out. Back in December, the European Commission published and swiftly deleted a video and its associated transcript in which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the Ukrainian military had suffered 100,000 fatalities in the first nine months of the conflict.

“We understand where and what we need to do,” Putin said on Thursday. “We are calmly moving towards achieving our goals, and I am confident that we will achieve them.”

Putin emphasized that Russia’s goal in Ukraine was not to expand the territory of the Russian Federation, but to build a “new world order” in which NATO or other military blocs were no longer able to impose their will on civilizations that resist. Putin also highlighted Kiev’s repression of Russian-speakers in the Donbass region as a key factor behind his decision to launch the military operation in Ukraine last year.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine reports success in the east, intense fighting further north

Ukrainian troops made headway in the eastern theatre of their counteroffensive to oust Russian occupying forces but are under pressure further north, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.

Russian forces backed by Su-35 attack aircraft had started attacking along the front line in the direction of Makiivka in the Luhansk region, a spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern group of forces said.

"The most difficult area is the Lyman-Kupiansk sector," the spokesperson, Ilia Yevlash, told Ukrainian television, referring to two towns recaptured by Ukrainian troops late last year but still subject to Russian assaults.

"The intensity of assaults there has increased ... The enemy has chosen a new point - Makiivka - and is directing all its main efforts into this direction. Of course, we are also repulsing enemy attacks and inflicting damage on forces and equipment."

Fighting has flared up periodically near Lyman and Kupiansk and Ukraine says Russia has redeployed more than 110,000 troops to the area.

A Russian missile struck a store and an adjacent cafe on Thursday in the village of Hroza, west of Kupiansk, killing 51 people as residents attended a service for a fallen Ukrainian soldier.

Also in the east, Ukrainian forces are battling to regain ground near the devastated city of Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces in May after months of fighting.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, in its evening report, said Kyiv's forces had "achieved success" south of Andriivka - a village south of Bakhmut captured by Ukrainian troops last month in Donetsk region.

The report said Russian forces had unsuccessfully tried to regain lost positions in an area further south.

Russian accounts of the fighting said Moscow's forces had repelled two Ukrainian attacks west of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.

Reuters was unable to independently verify reports of battlefield activity from either side.

In the southern theatre, Kyiv's forces are pushing toward the Sea of Azov in an attempt to split Russian-occupied territory in two.

The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces were pressing on with their southward advance in the Zaporizhzhia region and had repelled a Russian attack near the village of Robotyne.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has acknowledged that the counteroffensive is proceeding more slowly than the military would like, but has dismissed Western criticism that Kyiv's strategy.

RT/Reuters