Reply to thread

from a noted Ukrainian,

Illia Ponomarenko :

So, Z-Russians on Telegram are now talking about their losses in the Battle of Avdiivka in 2023-2024. Allegedly, it's 16,000 men as 'irreplaceable losses' (e.g., all fatalities + all severely wounded that will never be back to ranks again), as well as around 300 armored vehicles.

So, if that's true (though it's likely that Russians traditionally understate their losses, at least when it comes to lost equipment, given the gargantuan amount of verified video footage we've seen) -- it means that over the four months of the Avdiivka campaign between mid-October and mid-February, the Russian fatalities rate surpassed the official death toll of the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989), which stands at 15,000 fatalities. Yes, the ill-fated and formerly sadly-remembered senseless war in 'Afghan' that once left a heavy scar on an entire generation and particularly precipitated the fall of the Soviet Union...

Fighting for Avdiivka continued since the very days of 2014 and 2015 and lasted with varying intensity all those years before 2022, and was also extremely bloodletting and fierce for almost two years of Russia's full-scale invasion. Moreover, the claimed Russian death toll at Avdiivka... literally corresponds to some 50% of the city's entire population in 2021 (some 32,000). And that's within the last four months alone and according to likely downplayed Russian estimates.

.. And the defense of Avdiivka gradually crumbled particularly due to a severe lack of munitions and means to counter Russian jets relentlessly throwing dozens of guided bombs at the city each and every day.

Stalemate around the Ukraine aid at the U.S. Congress is already taking its toll. And amid all those shortcomings, see the absolutely savage efficacy of the Ukrainian defense, outnumbered and outgunned, -- again. A four-month battle vs a 10-year-long war in Afghanistan. Those are death toll estimates from Russians, not us.