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Vladimir Putin is seeking to grind out a victory in Ukraine.
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But its coming at a massive cost in casualties.
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A Ukrainian officer said Russia lost 5,000 troops in battles for a district.
Russia’s war of attrition in Ukraine is coming at a huge cost in killed and injured troops, with a Ukrainian official claiming Russia suffered 5,000 casualties in battles for one neighborhood alone.
Ukrainian defense official Lieutenant General Ivan Havrylyuk, in an essay published in Ukrainian outlet NV on July 9, discussed the possibility of a new Ukrainian counteroffensive to drive back Russian forces occupying territory in the south and east of Ukraine.
In the article, Havrylyuk claimed that Russia would likely have trouble sustaining the initiative in the conflict using its manpower and equipment advantages.
Havrylyuk pointed to massive Russian casualties he said its military was sustaining, claiming that 5,000 Russian troops were killed or injured in battles for control of a single district in the strategically vital town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk, east Ukraine.
The hilltop town has been the scene of ferocious fighting in recent weeks, with Russian forces managing to seize control of a district last week.
Havrylyuk didn’t name the district, but the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said he was likely referring to the Kanal Microraion neighborhood.
Business Insider was unable to independently verify the casualty figures given by Havrylyuk, but other reports and statements by officials indicate that Russia is also suffering high casualties in its campaign in the Kharikiv region in northern Ukraine.
Russia is launching head-on “meat assault” attacks on Ukrainian positions using waves of troops with UK intelligence claiming that Russia’s casualties in May spiked to its highest point in the war, with its military losing around 1,200 men a day.
Havrylyuk said that people were seen as expendable by Putin in his mission to conquer Ukraine, but economic issues and problems supplying its troops with ammunition and equipment could soon blunt its campaign.
The ISW said that high casualties were part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy to grind out a victory in Ukraine through a war of attrition.
“The recent increase in reports of entire Russian units becoming combat ineffective due to losses highlights the tactics on which Russian forces are relying on to pursue Putin’s theory of a slow, gradual, grinding victory in Ukraine,” it said.
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