That’s the headline on a BBC story by Paul Kirby reporting on UK intelligence estimates.
Russian and Russian-backed separatist forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine have suffered heavy casualties, according to UK intelligence officials.
They estimate the Donetsk militia alone has lost 55% of its original force.
Russian forces are focused on conquering all of neighbouring Luhansk, aiming to encircle the city of Lysychansk, say Ukrainian leaders.
...It drew attention to the "extraordinary attrition" suffered by Russian and Russian proxy forces in Donbas. While Russia has for months avoided detailing its casualties, the human rights ombudsman in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic said last week that 2,128 of its forces had been killed and 8,897 wounded. A further 654 civilians had been killed, said Daria Morozova.
The news coming out of Ukraine has been grim all along. Any estimates of casualties needs to be taken with a large grain of salt; accurate numbers count as military intelligence. The people who know are not going to reveal it to their enemies, or if they do, will do so in a way that serves their purposes. While the focus has been on Ukraine and Russia, the separatist forces backed by Moscow are paying a heavy price.
For months there have been reports of civilians being conscripted into the militia by force, with low morale and poor quality weapons, including rifles that went out of service decades ago. Last month, Ukraine's SBU security service claimed militiamen compared conditions to slavery and were ready to desert.
Disaffected former proxy officials such as Yevgeniy Mikhailov said last month that untrained reservists from Donetsk had been sent to the front line because Russia had stopped sending conscripts. One resident told the BBC last month that there had been "tragedies everywhere".
emphasis added
Daily Kos reports have indicated that Ukraine has been possibly exaggerating their losses in order to gain sympathy and speed arms supplies. It’s a trade-off between that and hurting morale. Exaggerated claims of enemy losses are also a common tactic to build support. The numbers game is not pretty — who remembers the U.S. obsession with enemy body counts in the Vietnam War? — and can overshadow more significant information.
That being said and given what we have seen so far, the report of separatists taking heavy casualties is consistent with Russian tactics to date. Putin apparently considers no price too high for other people to pay for his dreams of Russian empire.
There is supposedly a Russian proverb that states: “If you invite a bear to dance, it’s not you who decides when the dance is over. It’s the bear.”