President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Bakhmut is now breaking not only the Russian army, but also Russia’s mercenaries, but Vladimir Putin will not be stopped even by 100,000 of his citizens losing their lives.
Source: Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his evening address on 19 December
Quote: "Bakhmut is the hottest spot on the entire front line - more than 1,300 km of active hostilities. Since May, the occupiers have been trying to break our Bakhmut, but time goes by and Bakhmut is already breaking not only the Russian army, but also the Russian mercenaries who came to replace the wasted army of the occupiers.
Just think about it: Russia has now lost almost 99,000 of its soldiers in Ukraine. Soon the occupiers’ losses will be 100,000. For what? No one in Moscow can answer this question. And they won't.
They wage war and waste people's lives - other people's lives, not those of their loved ones, not their own lives, but the lives of others - just because a group of people in the Kremlin can’t admit to their mistakes and are terrified of reality. But reality speaks for itself."
Details: Zelenskyy thanked the Ukrainian soldiers who are heroically holding the Bakhmut front, Soledar, Avdiivka, Maryinka, the Kreminna front and the entire Donbas.
He emphasised that this region was one of the strongest in Ukraine before Russia came, and now the Russian Federation is "destroying it right down to the scorched earth".
But "even such cruelty will not give the enemy anything," the president insisted.
Read more: Invincibility centre Bakhmut. What is happening at the most difficult axis of the front
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a_rather_small_moose on December 20th, 2022 at 03:49 UTC »
Putin attempting to save face after defeats in Kharkiv and Kherson, sending Wagner prisoner volunteers b/c their lives are considered disposable, followed by “regular” Wagner mercenaries who execute any who retreat.
While it’s difficult for Ukraine to hold Bakhmut under these conditions, it’s an opportunity for them to inflict outsized casualties on Russia, quite literally bleeding them of manpower.
For Russia it’s a Pyrrhic victory at best and a “costly” defeat at worst. Russian society might not give a shit about prisoners and soldiers of fortune, but their casualties are still lost capacity.
Smokeydubbs on December 20th, 2022 at 01:53 UTC »
So in 10 months, Russia has almost double the losses the US had in 11 years in Vietnam.
Sanhen on December 20th, 2022 at 01:48 UTC »
Zelenskyy, per the article:
Russia sent about 200k to Ukraine in the initial stage of the invasion, so it's losses are approaching 50% of that initial number. Of course, they've sent reinforcements since, but that does help highlight the scale of Russia's casualties.