Russia has probably lost a 3rd of the invading force it started with in February

Business Insider

Russia has probably lost a 3rd of the invading force it started with in February, UK defense ministry says

Matthew Loh – May 15, 2022

Russia’s offensive in the Donbas has “fallen significantly behind schedule,” the UK says.Bai Xueqi/Xinhua via Getty Images
Russia has probably lost a 3rd of the invading force it started with in February, UK defense ministry says

The UK on Sunday said Russia had probably lost a third of the invasion force it deployed in Ukraine.

It also said Moscow had lost critical equipment including recon drones for its push into the Donbas.

It added that Russia’s advance was behind schedule and likely to stay that way over the next month.

The UK’s defense ministry estimates that Russia has most likely lost a third of the ground troops it deployed in February for the invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow’s renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine — the invasion’s focus for the past month — has also “lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule,” the UK defense ministry tweeted Sunday.

“Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining a high level of attrition,” it said in its assessment. “Russia has now likely suffered losses of one-third of the ground combat force it committed in February.”

As such, the UK said it considered Russia unlikely to dramatically accelerate its advance over the next 30 days. Losses could include not just troops who’ve been killed but also ones injured or captured.

The ministry said losing “critical enablers” such as “bridging equipment, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones” would further delay the Russian advance, adding that Moscow’s drones had been vulnerable to Ukrainian weapons.

The ministry’s assessment said poor morale and reduced combat effectiveness had also “increasingly” affected Moscow’s forces.

On the same day, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the war was “not going as Moscow had planned,” according to the Associated Press.

“Ukraine can win this war,” Stoltenberg said, per the AP.

Though Russia has withdrawn from areas around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and appears to have pulled back from the city of Kharkiv in the northeast, it has seized territories in Ukraine’s southeast and the eastern Donbas region, which is partially held by pro-Russian separatists.

Related:

Britain says Russia has lost a third of its forces in Ukraine

Reuters

May 15, 2022

FILE PHOTO: A local resident rides a bicycle past a charred armoured vehicle in Volnovakha

LONDON (Reuters) -Russia has probably lost around a third of the ground forces it deployed to Ukraine and its offensive in the Donbas region “has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule”, British military intelligence said on Sunday.

“Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining consistently high levels of attrition,” the British defence ministry said on Twitter.

“Russia has now likely suffered losses of one third of the ground combat force it committed in February.”

It said Russia was unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days.

Since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, Ukraine’s military has forced Russia’s commanders to abandon an advance on the capital Kyiv, before making rapid gains in the northeast and driving them away from the second biggest city of Kharkiv.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive has been under way near the Russian-held town of Izium, though Ukraine’s military reported on Sunday that Russian forces were advancing elsewhere in the Donbas region, the main theatre of war over the past month.

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru and William Schomberg in London; Editing by William Mallard and Aidan Lewis)

Related:

UK: Russia has likely lost one-third of ground combat forces in Ukraine

The Hill

Olafimihan Oshin – May 15, 2022

The United Kingdom’s defense ministry said that Russia has likely lost one-third of its ground combat forces in Ukraine almost three months into its war.

in a Twitter thread on Sunday, the ministry added that Moscow’s forces in the Donbas region have lost their ​​momentum and fallen behind schedule.

The ministry also said that Russia failed to achieve substantial territorial gains in the past month, as it sustained “consistently high levels of attrition.”

“Russia has now likely suffered losses of one third of the ground combat force it committed in February,” the ministry said in its tweet.

As many as 150,000 troops are believed to have been deployed by Moscow in its assault on Ukraine.

NATO said in March that as many as 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, been captured, gone missing or been taken prisoner.

The current number of Russian troops killed is debated, with Ukraine putting the total at 26,000 and Russia admitting to a little more than 2,000 deaths.

The Ministry also said in the thread that Russia was struggling to provide necessary equipment to its troops, with Ukraine continuing to put up a fight in the air and on the ground.

“Russian forces are increasingly constrained by degraded enabling capabilities, continued low morale and reduced combat effectiveness,” the ministry said in its Twitter thread. “Many of these capabilities cannot be quickly replaced or reconstituted, and are likely to continue to hinder Russian operations in Ukraine.”

“Under the current conditions, Russia is unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days,” the ministry concluded.

The ministry said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were able to recapture the towns and villages north of the city of Kharkiv, noting that Ukrainian forces are now continuing their counterattack in the region near the Russian border.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February, has also left thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians dead and forced some 6 million Ukrainian citizens to flee the country.

Author: John Hanno

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Bogan High School. Worked in Alaska after the earthquake. Joined U.S. Army at 17. Sergeant, B Battery, 3rd Battalion, 84th Artillery, 7th Army. Member of 12 different unions, including 4 different locals of the I.B.E.W. Worked for fortune 50, 100 and 200 companies as an industrial electrician, electrical/electronic technician.