JRL NEWSWATCH: “In Ukraine, Russia Is Inching Forward Death by Death” – New York Times:
“Russian forces have an unorthodox view of acceptable levels of military losses, with a willingness to expend troops and equipment to make even small gains on the battlefield.”
“… Hundreds of thousands of … Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been wounded or killed since [2022] … including tens of thousands last year in the battle for … Bakhmut. … Avdiivka was among the most costly. … [V]arious Russian casualty estimates … suggest … Moscow lost more troops taking Avdiivka than it did in 10 years of fighting in Afghanistan …. But casualty numbers are difficult to verify …. Since the start of the invasion, Russia has been willing to pay a particularly high cost to advance in … the Donbas …. Avdiivka has been strategic as well as symbolic for Russian war propaganda because of its proximity to Donetsk, the Donbas’s largest city …. The Kremlin’s propensity to fire more shells, mass more people and lean on a much larger and capable air force in this war allowed it to gradually turn the tide against Ukraine’s deep defenses in Avdiivka. The huge cost in wounded and dead, some analysts say, was just the byproduct ….”