According to Western mercenaries, certain Ukrainian battalions have sustained 85% casualties during their ongoing counteroffensive against Russian soldiers. The revelation is consistent with Russian casualty figures, which claim that Russia’s forces have crippled 43,000 Ukrainian troops in two months.
An American army veteran operating alongside Ukrainian special forces near Donetsk told ABC that his unit of “dozens” of troops suffered “85% casualties” during a two-week assault on a town near the city. He said that 40% of those hit were injured so severely that they were rendered “combat ineffective” subsequently.
Another American colleague stated that the unit encountered “very organized resistance” from Russian troops.
A third mercenary, from an unidentified Western nation, told the network that he had been seriously injured in the early days of the counteroffensive, and that around 80% of his battalion had since been wounded.
Because the Ukrainian government does not reveal casualty data, the public must rely on other indicators, such as unsubstantiated reports of expanding graveyards, to determine the magnitude of the losses.
According to leaked Pentagon documents, Kiev has formed 12 brigades for the counteroffensive, nine of which have been trained and supplied by NATO. With a brigade of 2,000 to 4,000 troops, a fatality rate of up to 85% may closely correspond to Moscow’s numbers. The US believes Kiev has sent tens of thousands more troops to the frontlines since the battle began, with sources telling Politico earlier this month that 150,000 troops are currently fighting.
According to recent media reports, American intelligence and military leaders fear that the counteroffensive would fail and that Ukraine’s chances of triumph are poor. Kiev aims to march south through the Zaporozhye area to the city of Melitopol in the Sea of Azov, severing Russia’s front and cutting off land access to Crimea. However, many lines of Russian trenches, bunkers, and minefields stand in the way, and Kiev’s soldiers have struggled to reach even the first of these lines without air help.
“We lost three Leopards [German-made tanks] in one day because they were just told to drive forward into a minefield,” a Western mercenary told ABC, adding that newly-conscripted Ukrainian soldiers lack the necessary training for such missions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Ukraine’s offensive “suicidal,” and declared in June that no matter how much Western armament is deployed, Kiev’s “mobilization reserve is not unlimited.”
“It appears Ukraine’s Western allies are indeed prepared to fight to the death,” Putin said at the time.
