Ukrainian commander reports 100% casualties for his battalion since the start of the war...

 

A duel funeral for a Ukrainian father and son killed in Bakhmut. Business Insider/Getty. 

A Ukrainian commander reports that of the 500 men in his battalion 100% have been casualties since the start of the war with Russia. Business Insider. The commander, a Lieutenant Colonel only identified by his callsign, Kupol, said of the original troops in his battalion 100 have been killed and 400 have been wounded. His troops have been replaced by new recruits without the experience and capabilities of the lost troops. Kupol also said that the troops he has now simply don't have the experience to survive in combat and many of them panic under fire. Kupol's unit, the 46th Air Assaults' brigade, is currently stationed in Bakhmut. 

The original Washington Post article can be found here. 

My Comment:

The original Washington Post article was released on Monday but this has been a fairly slow news week otherwise and I think it's important to mention the change in tone in western media articles. Since the start of the war Western Media has done nothing but cheerlead the Ukrainian government. But now we have been seeing articles showing how badly things are going for them in the war.  

Of course the original Washington Post article still put some very obvious propaganda, like the obviously false casualty figures for the Russians. There is no way they have suffered 200,000 casualties, since that is about the same number of troops they invaded with in the first place. Even if you include the Wagner Group mercenaries, the Chechens and the militia from the Donbas republics casualties aren't that high for the Russians. They have certainly had heavy casualties, but not anywhere near the ones claimed by western media.

Regardless, I don't know how the Ukrainian military continues to operate. They have lost the majority of their trained and experienced troops and are down to old men and draftees. But the biggest loss has to be of NCO's and lower ranked officers. It takes a long time to train up NCO's and once they are gone it's very hard to train them up. And given that the Ukrainian commander is complaining about his troops panicking under fire that's a good example of why leadership is so important. 

I also thought it was pretty important that they said a counter-offensive is pretty unlikely. Ukraine just doesn't have the people to launch an offensive, even if they do get their fourth army worth of equipment. Kupol pointed out that attacking causes a lot more casualties then defending (at least when you aren't using artillery attrition like the Russians) and that Ukraine just can't sustain the casualties anymore. 

The battle of Bakhmut has been a disaster for Ukraine. Though they have managed to hold the city for a long time, they have taken tremendous casualties at little cost to the Russians. Russia has had casualties of course, but they are mostly Wagner mercenaries and most of those have been prison volunteers. The troops sent there don't last long under withering artillery fire and it's rare for Ukrainians to have any artillery to fight back with. And even if they want to withdraw at this point they would have to do so under fire as all the roads out of the city are now within range of Russian artillery. 

It still makes little sense for Ukraine to hold the city. It is true that the city is one of the biggest defensive positions left in Ukraine, but at this point there is no point in holding the city. By pulling out now they could at least preserve the troops that are stationed there and they could fall back to reserve positions. But why have they not done so? Some say they are trying to buy time with the battle to train up new troops but that makes little sense when they send so many troops to Bakhmut. 

Regardless, I think it's clear that the media is trying to prepare people for not only the loss of Bakhmut, which is going to happen sooner or later, but the fact that there isn't going to be a summer Ukraine offensive, let alone a drive to Crimea. Indeed, it seems a lot more likely that Ukraine's military will collapse now...