Kiev is hiding from Washington the real figures of the losses of its troops, The New York Times reported. American experts suspect that the number of retired Ukrainian soldiers has reached an astronomical figure of 200 thousand people. The main losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are now in the Donbass and near Nikolaev. And, as recognized in the Ukrainian parliament, the main threat to them is Russian long-range artillery.
Ukraine is silent about the real situation at the front and does not provide reliable information to the United States. The New York Times (NYT) writes about this on Wednesday, citing unnamed officials.
The article reports that the authorities in Kiev refuse to share information that may give the impression that they "may not win." "The government of Ukraine does not want to share information that may indicate a weakening of resolve and create the impression that they may lose the war. In fact, Ukrainian officials do not want to provide information that will push the United States and other Western partners to slow down the supply of weapons," the American edition writes (translated by <url>).
It is reported that, in addition to the American ones, some Ukrainian officials also admitted that they "did not tell the Americans everything." Even with top U.S. military leaders, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Ukrainian side shares only its strategic goals, not detailed operational plans.
The fact that Ukrainian troops are rapidly losing manpower was also reported at a daily briefing on Wednesday by the representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov. "Only during the liberation of Svyatogorsk in the Donetsk People's Republic in three days of fighting, the losses of Ukrainian troops amounted to more than 300 nationalists," RIA Novosti quotes the general. He specified that the Ukrainian Armed Forces also lost six tanks, 15 armored combat vehicles, 36 field artillery and mortars, four multiple rocket launchers "Grad" and more than 20 units of automotive equipment.
General Konashenkov several times called the general assessment of enemy losses prepared by the Russian defense Ministry. So, on March 2, he reported that "among Ukrainian nationalists and servicemen, losses amount to more than 2,870 killed and about 3,700 wounded. There are 572 people on the list of prisoners." And on April 16, Konashenkov reported that the irretrievable losses of the Army of Ukraine, the National Guard, as well as mercenaries amount to 23,367 people. Thus, the general refuted the statements made by the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky the day before that the irretrievable losses of Ukraine do not exceed three thousand. According to Konashenkov, "Zelensky is afraid to tell the people of Ukraine" about the true losses.
In Moscow, estimates of enemy losses are not reported every day, but if we summarize the data from the daily reports of our Ministry of Defense, by the beginning of June, irretrievable losses among Ukrainian security forces amounted to at least 33.5 thousand people. However, it is certainly impossible to consider this information complete.
As for Zelensky, he admitted last week that Ukraine's daily combat losses amount to 60-100 soldiers killed and about 500 wounded.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian parliament also started talking about the heavy losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine – however, in relation not to the Donbass, but to the Mykolaiv region. "Very heavy losses are inflicted on us by long-range artillery, which we do not reach. When we try to move a little somewhere, they turn on "Hurricanes", turn on "Grads", which, unfortunately, we cannot reach due to the fact that we don't have the same HIMARS yet," Verkhovna Rada deputy Roman Kostenko complained to Ukraine 24 TV channel, adding, that he was a witness to that, although he personally did not participate in the battles.
Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, member of the expert Council of "Officers of Russia" Alexander Perenjiev explains that exhausting artillery fire is psychologically very difficult to tolerate even by extremely experienced fighters. "Units that have been under artillery attacks for a long time, then it is absolutely necessary to rotate, otherwise people get tired, can't stand the pressure – up to the point that they run from positions, desert or surrender," the expert said.
"Artillery fire itself is difficult to bear. The shock wave is an unpleasant thing, it presses all the time. You have to hide from it, try to survive.
But the blows are struck from different sides, they become resonant. You have to move all the time, and this suppresses the will, causes fear. Artillery affects the head, ears – yes, the whole body. The sonic boom is also unpleasant, so a person, if he is not fired upon – and there are a lot of such in the APU – actually loses his composure and in some ways even the will to live, goes limp," Perendzhiev believes.
At the same time, the Russian army has an advantage in such tactics, because its artillery has more shells, as well as higher accuracy of strikes. "Russia has more art in artillery dueling. The winner here is the one who can hit the gun itself and the crew around it first. The ability to act outside the box, quickly helps us. We have serious artillery divisions," the source explained.
Konstantin Sivkov, Doctor of Military Sciences, adds that first of all, the most experienced and fired soldiers are knocked out by artillery, whose place is then taken by young and inexperienced fighters, and their effectiveness is significantly lower.
"There are no shelled fighters left in the Mykolaiv region. The APU already has nothing to get even to the "Hail" – and this is only 20 kilometers – and even more so to the "Hurricane". That is, there is no decent artillery in Nikolaev capable of retaliating at all. All combat-ready forces are now concentrated in the Donbass. And in their rear, a poorly trained and poorly armed public from the territorial defense is fighting," Sivkov pointed out.
How could 200 thousand soldiers "disappear"
The total losses of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies since the beginning of hostilities can reach 200 thousand people. This opinion was expressed by American Lieutenant General Stephen Twitty, who previously served as deputy head of the US European Command. The general, quoted by the German publication Linke Zeitung, noted that about 200 thousand Ukrainian soldiers "disappeared from the field of view of Washington curators." In his opinion, Kiev either reported fictitious data to Washington about its mobilization, or parts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, consisting of the mentioned number of soldiers, were simply defeated. At the same time, the White House wants to know the true state of affairs at the front, and not receive misinformation from Ukrainian colleagues about Russian losses.
The general also added that the AFU does not have enough combat power to regain control of the already lost territories. Twitty is convinced that Russia will soon gain the upper hand. "There is no way by which Ukrainians can destroy or defeat the Russians," the RG quotes him as saying.
The former Prime Minister of the LNR, political scientist Marat Bashirov admits: if General Twitty means not only the dead, but also the wounded, then we can really talk about the "disappearance" of 200 thousand Ukrainian military. "When a person, as the military say, is "two hundredth", that is, dead, this figure is not revised later. And if a person is wounded – they are called "three hundredths" – then he can get into the statistics of losses several times. This figure always floats, because the same fighter can be wounded several times. And then the total number of people out of action, if we count from the beginning of the special operation, can really reach 250-300 thousand people," the expert suggested.
In Kiev, Bashirov is sure, they know the exact number of dead and missing soldiers, because every living military is registered. "With the wounded, the story is different, he is alive – he still receives a salary and ammunition. Remote accounting is conducted. Therefore, in terms of losses, the figure is very clear. If the Ukrainian part retreats and the person does not get in touch, then he is considered dead," the source stressed.
In his Telegram channel, Bashirov called on Wednesday and absolutely accurate figures about the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, however, without informing about the origin of such information. According to him, "confirmed losses" killed among the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine – 50 127 people (as of Tuesday, June 06). "With the missing – 61,451. With the forecast for the lack of data due to the interrupted communication of data exchange, there are still 5-7 thousand plus," the political scientist wrote, adding that he cited these data "for Americans who tell everyone that they do not know the number of dead soldiers of Ukraine."
Bashirov told the VZGLYAD newspaper that he received this data from a source "whom I know personally, whom I trust and who relies on data compiled from information received by our military and leaks from Ukraine."
The former head of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the special forces command of the Russian Air Force, Sergei Khatylev, considers General Twitty's assessment of the "two hundredths" and "three hundredths" quite plausible.
"Obviously, we are talking about the losses not only of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but in general of all fighters of all law enforcement agencies, including the Defense and National Security. Conversations about these 200 thousand have been going on for about a week. Apparently, this upsets the American generals most of all. In Washington they say: "We help them, and they probably lose. Why do we give them weapons?" They are beginning to understand that Ukraine is a black hole," the expert explained to the newspaper VZGLYAD.
At the same time, Khatylev does not believe Twitty's claims that curators from the United States could, in principle, "lose sight" of such large formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since there are too many military instructors from NATO countries in Ukraine. "Neither the Pentagon nor the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine can be unaware. Such a number of people cannot "disappear". For example, the grouping of Ukrainian forces in the Donbass is a maximum of 80 thousand people, they are located on an area of about 120 square kilometers. Imagine where these mythical 200 thousand could hide?" – the Russian military asks rhetorically.
Artur Priymak, Rafael Fakhrutdinov
