Russia Acknowledges Significant Troop Losses In Ukraine, Says Looking For Ways To End The War

One and a half months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is now not a secret that the war did not go as Vladimir Putin and the Russian military's top brass had expected.

Instead of a short war they hoped - in which the Russian military can march into Kyiv unopposed, topple the government, and install a friendly regime -all in a matter of days, Moscow is now struggling to end the war that it started with some kind of face-saving achievement.

AFP

The war that did not go as planned

Russia launched what it calls a "special military operation" on February 24 to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine and had sent a massive column into the country.

However, it ran into a massive wall of resistance from the Ukrainian military, volunteers, and ordinary civilians.

This caught many Russian troops by surprise as they were told that the Ukraine military was poorly trained, filled with Nazis, and less motivated to fight.

AP

By the time the Russian troops realised what they were told before the war was wrong, it was too late and they suffered unprecedented losses.

Russia yet to fully acknowledge losses

Kremlin has so far not come clean on the extent of losses it suffered.

But on Thursday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov lamented the rising death toll.

AFP

"We have significant losses of troops," he told Sky News. "It's a huge tragedy for us."

This is a massive change in the tone of Russia which has so far only acknowledged the death of 1,351 soldiers in Ukraine.

Since the start of the war on February 25, Russia has only twice addressed the number of soldiers it lost.

Even the acknowledgment of 1,351 soldiers being killed is widely seen as undercounted.

Twitter

According to Ukrainian authorities, the Russians have lost more than 19,000 men including several high-ranking officials in the 45 days of the war.

New information on the losses of #Russian occupiers, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/4U5DpaD3P8

¡ª NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 7, 2022

While there is no way to independently verify this claim, western intelligence agencies put the toll anywhere between 7,000 and 15,000.

In comparison, the Soviet Union lost about 14,000 men in its 10-year war in Afghanistan. The total of men killed in the two Chechen campaigns was 11,000.

In addition to this, Russia has suffered significantly when it comes to combat hardware.

Several Ukrainian towns and cities from which Russia has now withdrawn have become cremation grounds for its hundreds of tanks, air crafts and other war equipment.

Reuters

Looking for a way out

Amid mounting losses, Russia had on March 25 said that it is reducing "main goal" of controlling Donbass, an eastern region already partly held by Russian proxies.

Peskov on Thursday claimed that Russia is searching for ways to end the war.

"Our military are doing their best to bring an end to that operation," he said.

"And we do hope that in coming days, in the foreseeable future, this operation will reach its goals or will finish it by the negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegation."

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