The war that Russia started in the Ukraine is close to a year old. On February 24, in just over a month, Vladimir Putin will have to face the fact that in 365 days he failed to meet his goal of taking Ukraine, something he was confident he would achieve in a few days.
However, this is not the only headache of the head of the Kremlin. In the last few hours, United States intelligence reported some alarming figures for the invading forces.
As they affirmed, Russia suffered 188,000 casualties and the loss of more than 2,000 tanks in these 11 months of offensive, which accounts for a significant increase in the numbers released by the United Kingdom Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, at the end of 2022. , which estimated the number of Russian soldiers wounded, deserted or killed at 100,000.
The Ukrainian resistance thrived because of the Western supply of weapons to Ukraine, such as drones and missiles, which allowed them to attack Putin’s armored vehicles and target Russian targets with great precision.
The American general Mark Milley defined the fact in dialogue with the English media The Sun, which originally published these figures, as an “enormous number of casualties”.
Likewise, this information was released at a key moment in the offensive, which seems to have focused on Donbas. For weeks the focus has been on Bakhmut and Soledar, which Russia claims to have captured after months of fighting and in what would be its first victory in six months.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the village of Klishchiivka, nine kilometers south of Bakhmut, had been “liberated.”
However, this was not recognized by the Ukrainian side, which maintains that the fighting in the area continues, although it is becoming more and more cruel.
In parallel, Ukraine has intensified its demands for more weapons from the West as it prepares for a major Russian offensive that could take place in a few weeks, when Putin orders a change in the course of the war, in order to try to achieve a conquest. . To do this, he would launch a devastating attack on three fronts.
Thus, the seizure of Klishchiivka that it claims would be a minor victory compared to the Kremlin’s desire to take over, for example, Soledar, a key mining town in the Ukrainian supply chain in the east.
There the attacks have been going on for months, even with the presence of the mercenary Wagner Group, which has not escaped casualties. They too have reportedly suffered heavy losses and have been forced to intensify their recruitment drives in Russian prisons more than ever.
However, amid constant shelling and fierce fighting, the United States has alerted Ukrainian troops to change their approach. Rather than focus on Bakhmut, an official close to President Joe Biden argues that they should worry about preparing as much as possible for an offensive in the South. Washington believes that the Russians have a high probability of eventually taking this city and should therefore focus their efforts on a new target.
Meanwhile, an adviser to Volodimir Zelensky revealed that kyiv anticipates a three-pronged attack from northern Belarus, the Russian strongholds of Donetsk and Lugansk to the east, and, in the south, from the Crimean peninsula.
So with this breakthrough, if the Russian troops were to succeed, they would encircle the defending forces in a move that would set them back on the advances of the past few months.
Similarly, Ukraine does not plan to stand idly by as the enemy military hones its tactics, shelling civilian buildings and key infrastructure on a daily basis and causing the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
According to US officials, Zelensky foresees his own offensive against Russia, although closer to the spring, when he will have more weapons, while repelling other major attacks in Donetsk and Lugansk, where the industrial heartland bordering Russia and the separatist fight are concentrated. pro-Moscow has been for almost nine years.
To continue with these maneuvers, Ukraine assured that it needs at least 300 tanks, to which Marina Miron, from the Department of Defense Studies at King’s College London, explained that not only the quantity must be considered, but also the moment, the type, conditions and the soldiers’ knowledge of them.
This would allow kyiv to move forward with the reconquest of its territory although, according to Milley, victory is unlikely to happen this year. At a meeting hosted in Germany, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff commented that “from a military point of view, I still maintain that by this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily expel Russian forces from every inch of occupied Ukraine.” ”.
