Russian President Vladimir Putin just admitted a loss in the Russia-Ukrainian war for the first time since he launched his “military operation” in the country last year.
On Tuesday, Putin said that Russia had lost 54 tanks in the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The numbers, however, don’t add up to Ukraine’s claims of having destroyed 106 Russian tanks during the counteroffensive last week.
“We have ten times fewer losses than the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he told pro-Kremlin journalists and war bloggers in an intimate personal briefing.
Putin’s admission of loss is nonetheless startling when compared to the alarming discussion over the comparatively small number of Western tanks lost by Ukraine during the same counteroffensive.
According to Western analysis, the latest counteroffensive may have cost Ukraine four Leopard 2 main battle tanks and a number of Bradley armored fighting vehicles.
The Russian leader went on to claim that Ukraine would have suffered “about 25%, maybe 30% of all the vehicles that were provided [to Ukraine] from abroad” had he not reiterated his numbers.
“The enemy hasn’t had success in any of the areas. They have large losses,” Putin said. “They burn nicely, as we expected, be it Bradleys or Leopards, yes… Ammunition detonates inside, and pieces fly off in different directions.”
Wherever it happens, Russian information output seems to place a strong focus on highlighting the destruction of Western armor in the continued war.
This comes after the Kremlin-connected Wagner Group recently got into conflict with the Russian army. The Wagner Group claimed last week that Putin’s men shot their paramilitaries near Bakhmut in Ukraine, destroying one of the mercenaries’ trucks.
In response, Wagner claimed to have captured Lieutenant-Colonel Roman Gennadievich Venivitin of the 72nd brigade, and on Monday released a video of Venivitin confessing to ordering the firing on the mercenaries’ car, saying he did so while intoxicated because he disliked the group.
The statement went on to claim Wagner soldiers started to clear the explosives from the roads but were forced to stop after coming under “small arms fire” from a Russian brigade in Semigorje, a town approximately 20 kilometers south of Bakhmut.
