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Kyiv, Moscow will lose another 70,000 men in the next 4-5 months
The Russian army will lose up to 70,000 men in the next 4-5 months, but that Kremlin appears “ready” to face those losses: said Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andrii Cherniak, as reported by the Kyiv Independent. Russia is likely “to continue offensive operations this year,” Cherniak said, after which the Russians “understand that they will lose on the battlefield,” but have no intention of ending the war.
The Ukrainian secret service, the spokesman said, is “sure” that Moscow will continue to try to seize the Donetsk region and will do everything possible to hold its land corridor on the southern coast towards occupied Crimea. Senior Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, are warning that Russia could launch a major multi-pronged offensive earlier this year. Russian troops “could attack simultaneously from the north and east,” Cherniak said, but “these enemy actions are expected and our troops are ready,” he added.
The Kyiv Independent notes that although fighting in the country’s east and south has been fierce, Russia’s battlefield achievements remain limited. Russian troops have been forced to withdraw from 40 percent of the Ukrainian territories they occupied at the start of the invasion in February.
Ukraine, travel along the old front line east of Mykolaiv