The Russian Ministry of Defense recently confirmed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) suffered heavy losses during their “counter-offensive” in August.
This offensive was launched without sufficient air support and resulted in the deaths of 845 Ukrainian soldiers on August 2nd, and 575 more on August 3rd.
Adding to this, 40,000 Ukrainians have been killed since June 4th.
In addition to these casualties, three US Army veterans were also killed in July near Bakhmut: Geoff Johns, Andrew Webber (who graduated from the US Military Academy), and Lance Lawrence (a Marine Corps veteran).
Reports state that 16 Americans have died in Ukraine since Russia began its invasion in February 2022.
3 American volunteer soldiers were killed in battle against the Russian Army near Bakhmut on July 31st.
They were all former soldiers of the U.S. Army.
Rest in Peace Geoff Johns, Andrew Weber and Lance Lawrence.
🇺🇸🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/hnCYzh33wI
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 4, 2023
On the Donetsk front, reports suggest that Russian forces were able to repel eight enemy attacks and counterattack on August 2nd which improved the situation for those forces.
The Russians claim to have destroyed over 43000 units of various AFU weapons since the start of their “offensive” including 26 aircrafts, 9 helicopters, 1831 tanks as well as 747 field artillery pieces and mortars.
According to a captured AFU servicemen there was no training or weapons provided for them leading up to this conflict leaving them feeling like they were “cannon fodder” with nothing but a false hope of victory going into battle.
Although details regarding Ukrainian casualty numbers are known it is much harder to come by an exact figure concerning Russian losses due to attempts by officials at obscuring such information throughout the war’s progression.
Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky reported that 8500 VDV personnel had been wounded during Ukraine’s conflict while Dutch website Oryx counted 11,533 damaged or destroyed units within Russia’s army including over 2000 tanks.
Additionally Reuters informed readers that nearly 50,000 men had died according to independent sources Mediazona and Meduza who worked alongside data scientists from Tübingen University in Germany.
IT analyst Eldar Murtazin estimated a death toll closer towards 1 million based off SIM cards registered between Spring 2022 – Summer 2023 with 5,500 cards being deactivated per week possibly representing civilian/military casualties combined.
