Russia may have lost one fifth of their combat power in Ukraine, say Western officials

Russian forces have continued to take heavy losses in Ukraine according to Western officials — and their army may have lost one fifth of its effective combat power since the invasion on 24 February.

Heavy loss of life has been recorded in the lighter armed airborne and motor rifle infantry units. “They only have lightly protected vehicles,” said an official on Friday afternoon, ”and the first aid and medical facilities have been poor.” He said they hadn’t expected heavy fighting round cities like Kyiv.

Some reports in European media have suggested that the Russians may have sustained up to 40,000 casualties, including military killed, wounded, missing in action.

“This is impossible to verify,” said the official. But he confirmed that some 20 of the 120 Battalion Tactical Groups — BTGs — of the original invasion are out of action. “In effect, we are looking at a loss of one fifth of their combat power.”

They have been withdrawn and replaced. In one case three BTGs have been rolled into one . Extra units are being raised , including forces from Georgia, eastern districts in Siberia and the Wagner Military Group of mercenaries.

“They will be coming from barracks to the battlefield, untrained and with poor equipment,” said the official.

He said that seven Russian frontline generals have been killed — the most recent was Lt General commanding he 49th Combined Arms Army. A brigade commander, a Colonel Medvechek, is reported to have been run over by his own troops, enraged at the huge loss of Ives among their comrades.

On Friday the Interfax Agency out of Moscow reported that “the first phase of Russian operations is over. The second phase will concentrate on the Donbas area.”

This is taken to mean that the Russian regime knows that the primary aim of taking Kyiv and liberating most of Ukraine has failed. Counterattacks round the capital are scoring tactical successes.

“But it is too early to talk about a turning of the tide,” the official said. He said the battle was now focusing heavily on the enclaves of the Donbas, Donetsk and Luhansk, where the Ukraine Army has ten of its best brigades.

Following the summits in Brussels on Thursday, Ukraine is believed to have a more than adequate resupply of weapons like the javelin and LAW from Britain, to be supplemented with the longer range Star Streak anti aircraft missile.

Anti chemical and biological warfare protective suits and equipment are being rushed forward to Ukraine troops as a priority — with growing fears that Putin’s double bluffing about chemical attacks become a sudden reality.

It is not sort the Ukraine Army is short of tanks. “They have actually got more now than they started with — taking them off the Russians and repairing them, with the odd Russian tank being towed off by a Ukrainian farmer,” said the official.