One of NATO’s commanders recently said that 200,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, and that the Russians have lost 2,000 tanks in the war. British intelligence believes the soldiers are now fighting with shovels.
It was General Christopher Cavoli who made the estimate during a speech in Hamburg on March 3, writes The mirror. Cavoli is one of the top military leaders (SACEURSACEURSupreme Allied Commander Europe) in the NATO system.
– The scope of the war is unfathomable, said Cavoli, before listing some key figures that Nato believes to be sitting on:
- The Russians have lost 200,000 soldiers – these are either dead or wounded.
- 1,800 Russian officers are killed or injured.
- Russia has lost more than 2,000 tanks.
- The Russian army fires an average of 23,000 artillerigranaterartillerigranaterThis is a projectile that contains explosives and is usually fired from artillery guns. every single day.
British intelligence: Giants in spades
In recent months, Russia has spent huge amounts of ammunition and troops trying to take Bakhmut, a smaller Ukrainian city in Donetsk that is considered to have limited strategic value.
Ukraine claims that the Russians have sometimes lost up to 1,000 soldiers a day.
British Ministry of Defence reported March 5 that Russian reservists are now fighting along the front lines with what the soldiers refer to as only “firearms and shovels”.
According to the British, this is about old shovels for digging trenches. British intelligence believes they are being distributed so that the Russians will engage in close combat.
“One of the reservists says that they are not physically or mentally prepared. Fresh evidence suggests an increase in close combat in Ukraine,” writes British intelligence.
This is probably due to a lack of artillery shells, they write further.
Videos in social media shows how Ukrainian soldiers are now fighting from street to street, in some cases only a few tens of meters from the Russians. This substantiates that the fighting soldiers are very close to each other.
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The Russians are pressing on in Bakhmut – they claim they have effectively surrounded the city
Uncertain numbers
US Defense Chief Mike Miley estimated in November that there were 100,000 dead and wounded soldiers on each side. Until then, it was the highest figure that had been stated by a Western official.
It is difficult to get a clear picture of how many people have been killed in Ukraine.
Russia rarely comments on casualty figures. The BBC and the opposition media Medusa has painstakingly compiled an overview of at least 10,000 Russian soldiers who have been killed. Aftenposten has also surveyed a large number.
Like Russia, Ukraine rarely provides figures for killed soldiers in its own ranks. Presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak said at the beginning of December that up to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed.
However, the EU and the US estimate that these figures are also higher.
Thousands of civilians killed
It is also very difficult to get an overview of how many civilians have been killed. Russia has repeatedly attacked civilian targets in what have appeared to be targeted attacks.
There are also examples of Ukrainian attacks in the east of the country affecting the civilian population.
The UN has launched an investigation to get an overview of the civilian losses. In February, they said at least 8,000 civilians had been killed and 13,300 wounded. At least 487 of those killed are children.
The UN itself emphasizes that the real figure is probably much higher. The UN only takes those it is possible to confirm with absolute certainty that they have been killed.
The US defense chief estimated in November that 40,000 civilians have been killed. Ukrainian estimates are far higher than that again.
It is especially in the Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol that it is feared that many civilians have been killed. The city had over 400,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion.
It was subjected to massive Russian attacks against civilian targets for many weeks and completely destroyed. It is now under Russian occupation, and it is impossible to verify the number of dead.
News agency Ap reported in December that at least 10,300 new graves have been dug in the city since March.
