BRUSSELS, FRANCE — On Wednesday, NATO estimated that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers got killed. In four weeks of battle in Ukraine.
Many casualties occurred as the country’s defenders put up a tougher-than-expected fight. They were denying Moscow the quick victory it planned.
According to a senior NATO military officer, the estimate is based on information from Ukrainian officials. Which says Russia has intentionally or unintentionally leaked intelligence acquired through open sources.
Per NATO, this person spoke on the condition of anonymity ground procedures.
Russia had not provided an official update since March 2, when it announced the deaths of 498 soldiers in Ukraine.
The pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper stated Monday that nearly 10,000 Russian soldiers had gotten killed, citing the Defense Ministry. The article was promptly taken down. The publication accused hackers.
Russia launched Europe’s largest offensive since World War II on February 24 and threatened nuclear escalation if the West participated. A swift overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected government appeared likely.
With four weeks of war behind it, Russia is stuck in a relentless military campaign, with thousands of casualties. Western sanctions damaged its economy.
Despite the substantial evidence to the contrary. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the military operation proceeded “strictly according to plan.”
Russia aims to “get rid of Ukraine’s military potential” and “guarantee that Ukraine transitions from an anti-Russian center to a neutral country.” Says Peskov.
Russia officially refers to the campaign as a “special military operation.” It has effectively banned terminologies like “invasion” and “war,” and authorities have jailed thousands of antiwar protestors.
Recommended: Top Ten Online Therapy Services Websites 2022
However, as fatalities rise and a speedy victory is no longer in sight, Russia is forced to attempt to boost morale. According to Western authorities, Putin’s forces suffer from severe food, gasoline, and cold weather equipment shortages.
“We’ve got signals that the Ukrainians are going on the offensive now,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. He noted that that was especially true in southern Ukraine, notably near Kherson.
However, many Western experts warn against overconfidence in Ukraine’s long-term prospects due to Russia’s significantly stronger and larger military.
In previous battles, the Kremlin’s strategy was to grind resistance with airstrikes that demolished towns, killing countless civilians and fleeing millions.
Major Russian goals remain unachieved. Kyiv, the capital, has been regularly shelled yet is not even encircled.
More shelling and shooting rattled the city on Wednesday, where the two sides fought to control several neighborhoods. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, at least 264 civilians have been murdered in the city since the war began.
Under weeks of siege and bombing, the southern port city of Mariupol has suffered the most devastation of the conflict. However, Ukrainian soldiers have stopped their fall. They were thwarting Moscow’s apparent attempt to fully establish a land bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, which was captured from Ukraine in 2014.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Japan’s parliament that four weeks of fighting had killed thousands. Including at least 121 Ukrainian children.
He said: “Our people cannot properly bury their murdered family, friends, and neighbors. We have to bury them in the yards of damaged buildings, near the roads.”.
After being repeatedly pushed back by hit-and-run Ukrainian soldiers armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian troops blast targets from a distance. They reverted to tactics used to level cities in Syria and Chechnya.
Recommended: Russia’s Ukraine War Reveals Political Fault Lines in Asia
According to Zelenskyy, 100,000 citizens remain in Mariupol, a metropolis of 430,000 people. They destroyed it by air, land, and sea strikes. Repeated efforts to send vitally needed food and supplies to those stranded have failed frequently.
“They bombed us for the previous 20 days,” claimed Viktoria Totsen, 39, who escaped to Poland from Mariupol. “Over the last five days, jets flew over us every five seconds, dropping bombs everywhere — on residential buildings, kindergartens, art schools, etc.”
In his usual video address to his nation, Zelenskyy stated Tuesday. That efforts to construct humanitarian corridors for residents of the southern port city are nearly all being “failed by the Russian occupiers by deliberate terror or shelling.”
He said that the Russian military had seized a humanitarian convoy. The Russians imprison 11 bus drivers, four rescue personnel, and their cars. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
It is unknown how much of Mariupol remains under Ukrainian control. According to fleeing residents, combat is still taking place on a street-by-street basis.
Mariupol officials reported in their most recent update, more than a week ago, that at least 2,300 people had died. The exact toll is likely much higher. In the last week, airstrikes have destroyed a theatre, a swimming pool complex, and an art school, which housed civilians.
According to regional governor Viacheslav Chaus, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge essential for relief deliveries and civilian evacuations in the besieged northern city of Chernihiv.
Kateryna Mytkevich, who fled Chernihiv and arrived in Poland, wiped away tears describing what she had witnessed.
Recommended: Saudi Arabia Announces Its Nuclear Energy Company
According to Mytkevich, 39, the city is without gas, power, or running water, and entire neighborhoods are demolished.
“I don’t understand why we are cursed,” she remarked.
The ICRC, or head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, arrived in Moscow on Wednesday. For talks with Russian officials about pressing issues such as humanitarian aid and captives.
“The devastation caused in recent weeks and eight years of conflict in Donbas has been enormous,” said ICRC President Peter Maurer.
With surging energy prices, concerns over the global food supply, and Russia and China aligning in a new world order with Cold War echoes. The war’s economic and geopolitical shockwaves have resonated throughout a planet that has yet to recover from the COVID-19 disaster.
This week, key allies gather in Brussels and Warsaw to discuss possible further punitive measures and increased military supplies to Ukraine.
President Biden left the White House for his flight to Europe on Wednesday. He cautioned that there is a “serious concern” that Russia will use chemical weapons. He told he would discuss the matter with the other leaders.
Meanwhile, discussions between Kyiv and Moscow to stop the fighting have resumed by video. Negotiations with Russia, according to Zelenskyy, are progressing “step by step, but they are progressing.”
With no peace, those not yet fighting prepared to do so.
“Everything is a best-seller these days,” said Zakhar Sluzhalyy, owner of a weapons shop in Lviv, Ukraine’s western city.
“We’re defending our territory,” he explained. “We’re fighting for our freedom, as well as the freedom of the rest of Europe.” — Organizations.
