Firefighters search for bodies under the ruins of the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
Photo: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
The United States estimates that Russia has lost between 15 and 20% of combat power and is now seeking to mobilize more than 60,000 conscripts and reservists in eastern Ukraine. to reinforce the takeover of the eastern region of Donbas.
The number of tactical units in the Russian border city of Belgorod, 80 kilometers north of Kharkiv, has reportedly risen from 30 to 40, a senior Defense Department official said on Friday.
This implies that 10,000 more Russian soldiers have been transferred to the east of the country in recent days, according to ABC News. “We believe that area will serve as a resupply area for Russian troops. We have seen indications that some units are moving towards Belgorod”, he has confessed.
Likewise, the defense official maintained that Russia is concentrating its energy and effort in the south and east of the country. “It’s hard to say exactly where each of these (soldiers) are, but we’ve seen them increase,” he said.
As Russian troops withdraw from some Ukrainian cities, some of the Russian Battalion Tactical Groups (or BTGs, with approximately 800-1000 soldiers each) that have withdrawn across the borders of Belarus and Russia have been essentially “eradicated” from the fighting in Ukraine. according to the senior defense official.
“There is simply nothing left of the BTG except a handful of troops and maybe a small number of vehicles,” the official said.
In terms of total losses, counting troops, tanks, aircraft, and missile inventory, Russia has lost 15-20% of the combat power it originally had against Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, according to the official.
On the other hand, he assured that the “struggle” during the last eight years in the Donbas region has served so that both Armies “are familiar” with the terrain, the population centers and the lines of communication, so he expects “a knife fight.” “This could be very bloody and very ugly,” has nuanced
Donbas is becoming the main theater of battle in the country after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failed attempt to take the Ukrainian capital of kyiv.
“The Russians and the Ukrainians have been focused on Donbas for eight years, and [han sido] for eight years the Ukrainians have been able to block Russia’s biggest targets in Donbas,” the Pentagon official said. “But the fight has been bloody, it has been hard. And it’s been pretty consistent for years.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said last week that there were reports predicting that tens of thousands of reservists were being mobilized to reinforce Russian units on the Donbas border after the losses of its troops in northern Ukraine.
In addition, the Ukrainian Armed Forces assured on Tuesday that Russia “would be regrouping troops” and “concentrating its efforts” on preparations for a military offensive in the east of the country, referring to the Donbas region, where the self-proclaimed republics of Ukraine are located. Donetsk and Luhansk.
“The goal is to establish full control of the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The Russian enemy is trying to improve the position of units in the operational areas of Tavrita and Pivdennobuzhsky”, highlighted the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army through a message on its account on the social network Facebook.
With information from the Department of Defense, Europa Press and ABC News
It may interest you:
– Russia and Ukraine: why the Russian army has focused its efforts on encircling the east of the country
– Russia regrets “significant” losses of soldiers and admits to being in its most difficult economic moment
– Zelensky: Russian missile attack on train station in Kramatorsk is a war crime
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