On the 320th day of the war in Ukraine, the Russian military claims to have killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops in a missile attack, but evidence on the ground doesn’t support Moscow’s claim.
A Russian missile attack against Ukrainian positions in the town of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine resulted in material damage, contrary to the Russian claims of more than 600 Ukrainian troops dead. The attack and the information operation behind it are a response to the deadly Ukrainian strike against a Russian makeshift barracks in the Donbas that killed anywhere from 89 to 400 soldiers.
Russian Casualties in Ukraine
Overall, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that as of Monday, Ukrainian forces have killed approximately 111,760 Russian troops (and wounded approximately twice to thrice that number), destroyed 285 fighter, attack, bomber, and transport jets, 275 attack and transport helicopters, 3,080 tanks, 2,069 artillery pieces, 6,147 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 434 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 16 boats and cutters, 4,809 vehicles and fuel tanks, 217 anti-aircraft batteries, 1,856 tactical unmanned aerial systems, 183 special equipment platforms, such as bridging vehicles, and four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems, and 723 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses.
Security Assistance to Ukraine
Meanwhile, calls for more security assistance to Ukraine continue to grow. Following the joint U.S. and German decision to send M2/M3 Bradley and Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles, more countries are willing to send more advanced weapon systems to Ukraine.
Finland is the first country to announce that it is willing to send Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Kyiv. Helsinki has conditioned the shipment of the tanks to the willingness of other European nations to also provide main battle tanks to Ukraine.
Although the Ukrainian forces have made great advances on the ground, liberating hundreds of square miles of territory, approximately 18 percent of the country, including the Crimean Peninsula, remains under Russian control. To liberate it, the Ukrainian forces will need more security assistance, including Western main battle tanks, such as the M1 Abrams and the Leopard 2.
The Fight In the East
For the last month or so, there has been heavy fighting in the east around the town of Kreminna. The two sides are fighting it out in a heavily forested area to the west of the important urban center. Kreminna leads to Svatove, a key logistical hub. If the Ukrainian forces manage to liberate the two towns, they will disrupt the lines of supply of the Russian military and severely restrict its offensive and defensive operations in the east and the Donbas.
Infantry on both sides is leading the fight as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are having trouble operating the densely forested area.
“Russian commanders will highly likely view pressure around Kremina as a threat to the right flank of their Bakhmut sector, which they see as key for enabling any future advance to occupy the remainder of Donetsk Oblast,” the Military Intelligence assessed in one of the latest estimates on the war.
SOURCE: 19fortyfive.com
