Ukraine destroys six Russian battalions in just one week

The Russian Armed Forces have suffered substantial losses over the course of a single week as Ukraine’s efforts to break through Russia’s defenses have intensified all across the frontlines in the eastern and southern portions of the country. 

According to numbers relayed by Ukraine's Military Media Center, the country’s defense forces have eliminated a stunning amount of troops and equipment between the 18th of September and the 24th of September. But how bad are Moscow’s losses?

In terms of military personnel, the Ukrainian Defense Forces claimed to have eliminated as many as 2,810 Russian soldiers during the one-week period of fighting. If this proves to be true it would mean Moscow lost roughly six battalions. 

Russian tank crews suffered heavy losses as well with thirty-nine vehicles destroyed by the Ukrainians. Thirty-one tanks make up one battalion in the Russian Armed Forces so Moscow also lost just over one tank battalion in the recent fighting. 

Armored combat vehicles represented another big loss for Russia and the high numbers destroyed by the Ukrainians do make sense considering the ongoing counter-offensive.  Ukraine claims Russia lost seventy-six armored combat vehicles in one week. 

The Russian Armed Forces group their motorized rifle units into battalions of thirty-four vehicles so the destruction of seventy-six armored combat vehicles would represent a loss of just over two motorized rifle battalions, which is not an insignificant amount. 

Tens of Russian rockets were also destroyed in the one-week period with the country’s defense forces destroying at least thirty-nine according to the numbers provided by the Military Media Center. This may have saved untold numbers of Ukrainian lives. 

However, the real shocking number of destroyed equipment is in the amount of artillery systems that were destroyed by Ukraine’s Defense Forces. In just one week the military eliminated one hundred and ninety-eight pieces of Russian artillery. 

One Russian artillery division is made up of eighteen guns so roughly eleven divisions were taken out of the fight. This is a lot more important than you might think since it is Russa’s artillery systems that are helping to keep Kyiv’s counter-offensive at bay. 

Frederik Mertens is a strategic analyst at The Hague Center for Security Studies and he explained to Newsweek that despite the counter-offensive efforts on the part of Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian forces were still “locked in an attrition battle.”

Attritional warfare is one in which the ability to destroy the enemy with heavy fire is more important than maneuvers. "Artillery is king in such battles and is responsible for most of the losses an army inflicts on its enemy," Mertens explained to Newsweek. 

However, artillery losses are one area of the war in which the Kremlin is really suffering. Russia has lost 6299 artillery systems as of September 26th. This would mean that the Kremlin has lost upwards of roughly 350 artillery divisions since invading Ukraine. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons, By Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88887875

On September 26th, Ukraine’s daily update on Russian losses reported that the Kremlin suffered at least thirty-nine destroyed artillery pieces in a single day. This tracks with the general trend of Moscow losing huge numbers of artillery since the war began. 

This is important according to Daniel Rice, a former advisor to Ukraine's General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not only destroying artillery pieces but also Russia’s “entire professional army of artillerymen.”

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons, By Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85841449

The number of Russian artillery soldiers killed in the conflict to date is unknown but Kyiv does claim that Moscow’s personnel losses have reached over one-quarter of a million soldiers according to the latest estimates from the country’s General Staff. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons, By Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72531571

The most recent update put total Russian personnel losses at 276,660 soldiers, 400 of whom were eliminated on September 25th. While that number should be taken with a grain of salt, it does reveal the disastrous situation the Russians now find themselves in.