Russia losing 100 soldiers a day in bloody battle for Bakhmut, report

Russia is losing a total of 100 soldiers a day as they attempt offensives against Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine.

On Sunday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington DC-based think tank, released a report on the battles between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend.

Ukrainian forces had success in repelling Russian troops in and around Bakhmut on December 4 as Russian soldiers attempted to capture the entirety of the Donetsk region.

“The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian troops repelling Russian attacks northeast of Bakhmut near Berestove, Bilohorivka, Yakovlivka, Soledar, and Bakhmutske and south of Bakhmut near Opytne, Klishchiivka, Andriivka, and Kurdiumivka,” according to the ISW report.

Russia is reportedly facing 50 wounded and 50 killed in action soldiers a day in and around Bakhmut. Newsweek was not able to independently verify this, however.

Russia does not regularly release updates on how many losses it has endured. Throughout the war, the figures that Moscow has made public are often much lower than Ukrainian estimates.

Despite the claims by Ukraine, its defence and counterattacks have not been wholly successful.

“Social-media footage posted by Ukrainian troops shows heavy fighting south of Bakhmut in Opytne, and Russian milbloggers claimed that the capture of Opytne is crucial to further Russian advances toward Bakhmut,” the ISW added.

“Russian sources additionally claimed that Ukrainian troops conducted an unsuccessful counterattack in Kurdiumivka and that fighting is ongoing in several settlements south of Bakhmut.”

The spokesperson for the Ukrainian Eastern Group of Forces, Serhiy Cherevaty, spoke about Russia’s losses on TV following conflicts in the region.

“Here, you can roughly say based on the dynamics, rounding off, of course. In the area from 50 to 100 people, they can lose only in the Bakhmut direction,” Cherevaty said, according to a report from the Ukrainian TV station, Espresso TV.

“It is only killed and the same number wounded, depending on the time of day.”

Cherevaty added that the situation in the region is tense but under control. He said that Ukraine forces are holding their defense and repelling multiple attacks from Russia.

He also noted that Russian troops were ordered not to bring artillery shells within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the frontline in the Donetsk area, due to successful Ukrainian strikes on Russian ammunition depots.

The alleged daily losses are beginning to mount up as Russia is predicted to lose 100,000 soldiers in less than one year of war, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence.

This milestone could be reached as soon as this week or the next. This would be two months shy of the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022.

Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.