The Russian military units invading Ukraine are suffering very heavy losses, and the troops morale seems to be abysmal to the point that some troops are turning on their officers.
By NEBI QENA and CARA ANNA
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where fierce fighting by the country’s fast-moving defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.
By way of comparison, Russia lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan.
A senior NATO military official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released — intentionally or not — and intelligence gathered from open sources.
The most recent figure for Ukraine’s military losses came from Zelenskyy on March 12, when he said that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in action.
The NATO official said 30,000 to 40,000 Russian soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded.
Taking the higher figure that works out to a 21% casualty estimate for the forces inside Ukraine, and 15.78% with the lower casualty estimate. Those kind of losses over such a short term aren’t sustainable. No wonder American Intelligence is expecting increasingly desperate measures from the Kremlin to salvage their military predicament in Ukraine.
By Allison Quinn
Two Russian soldiers have been caught venting about Putin’s “bullshit” war against Ukraine in an intercepted phone call as devastating losses reportedly led one soldier to drive over his colonel with a tank.
“Basically, it’s a shitshow here, I’ll put it that way,” an unnamed soldier near Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine can be heard telling a colleague in a recording released by Ukraine’s Security Service late Tuesday.
After telling his friend that Ukrainian forces “tore apart” a column of Russian forces sent along with his own unit, he described complete disarray among the Russian military, with 50 percent of the unit suffering from frostbite on their feet.
“But they don’t plan to treat them in the [field] hospital,” he said.
“It’s such trash here… our own plane dropped a bomb on us,” he said.
He said soldiers are complaining about having Kevlar vests that lack the hard-armor panel, but they are ignored.
“Even in Chechnya, there was nothing like this,” he said, describing the situation as a “madhouse.”
“This ‘special operation,’ damnit… with respect to homes not meant to be destroyed… it’s bullshit.”
Even though “on TV” they said the Russian troops were advancing, they were actually surrounded “on all sides” by Ukrainian forces, he said.
I’ve seen a report that Putin is firing some of his generals in desperation, Stalin style.
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