Ukrainian soldiers say they lack the weapons and weaponry to deter Russian attacks. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Russia has endured its bloodiest month since the war began, British military intelligence has said, as its forces made a number of successes in risky attacks along the front line.
Kremlin forces pushed back Ukrainian soldiers and captured a number of towns and villages around the two-year anniversary of the war.
But these successes killed or wounded some 29,000 people in February alone. Russian soldiers were believed to be approaching their next target on Sunday: the town of Chasov Yar, near Bakhmut.
“The increase in the daily average almost certainly reflects Russia's commitment to a massive and attritional war,” the UK Ministry of Defense said at its daily intelligence briefing.
Its data showed that over the past four months the Russian military has suffered an average of more than 936 victims every day. This is four to five times its losses in the first few months after the invasion in February 2022.
In November, the Kremlin launched a frontal attack on Avdiivka in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region, eventually capturing the devastated city in mid-February.
“Although costly in terms of human lives, the resulting effect has increased pressure on Ukrainian positions along the entire front line,” the UK Ministry of Defense said, adding that Russia is now probably lost a total of 355,000 soldiers in two years.
Ukrainian soldiers said they lacked the arms and weapons to hold off Russian attacks and described a chaotic retreat from Avdiivka after days of brutal house-to-house fighting.
One Ukrainian soldier said Russian officers showed up. disrespect their people, whom they sent to almost certain death.
“Russia sent inexperienced troops in waves every morning, afternoon and evening. They looked to be about 40 or 50 years old, without protective vests or helmets,” the soldier told the Washington Post.
Russian military bloggers said that there is now heavy fighting along the entire eastern front line, which has moved to several miles west of Avdeevka and Bakhmut, a town captured by Wagner's mercenaries last May.
The Rybar channel, closely linked to the Russian Ministry of Defense, told its 1.2 million subscribers what Russian troops were doing decent progress, although their commanders were still rude, sending infantry to attack armored vehicles without grenade launchers and drawing “maps based on beautiful video reports with flags in villages that had not yet been cleared.”
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