Russia-Ukraine: Kremlin newspaper reveals Vladimir Putin has lost at least 10,000 troops
The true cost of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been laid bare, as haunting video purports to show bus-loads of dead troops.
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Russia has admitted it has lost nearly 10,000 troops since its invasion of Ukraine on February 23, despite President Vladimir Putin expecting a quick victory.
Russia has kept its true death toll under wraps and on March 2 admitted to just 498 deaths.
But in an extraordinary move, the previously undisclosed figure was revealed by a pro-Kremlin newspaper and laid bare the true cost of Mr Putin’s disastrous invasion.
Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that according to the Russian defence ministry 9861 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine and 16,153 injured.
The report was quickly taken down though several screenshots were taken including by the Wall Street Journal.
However, Ukraine claims to have killed around 15,000 Russian troops and to have destroyed a large amount of equipment.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said the “active hostilities” between the two sides could end in just two to three weeks.
He said taking control of the capital Kyiv was still clearly a priority for Russia – but trying to do so would be “suicide” for Moscow.
It comes as a haunting parade of buses in Belarus is believed to be carrying the bodies of hundreds of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine.
The ghostly footage, which we cannot show, was taken from Gomel (Homel) in Belarus, close to the border with Ukraine where war is raging.
“It is not very clearly visible – but eight sanitary buses are moving…,” a voice can be heard saying.
It is believed that the human “cargo” inside those buses is from battles with the Ukrainian army in the Chernihiv region.
“I can see them bringing in a stretcher; I guess there are both wounded, and Cargo-200 (the Russia war-speak for those killed in battle),” the person said.
However, other sources dispute that these buses with blotted windows and displaying the V-insignia are makeshift ambulances.
These sources say these grim hearses packed with coffins are en route to devastated bereaved families in Russia.
Gomel’s hospitals are already filled with Russian wounded from the war.
Referring to young soldiers deployed by Vladimir Putin the video commentator says: “The wounded are ‘children’, young men born in 2003.
“They are all last autumn‘s conscripts, and they get delivered here without eyes, ears, with their intestines twisted.“
RUSSIAN SOLDIERS SAY THEY WERE EXPECTING A VICTORY PARTY
A Russian soldier has complained about his troops getting frostbite and meeting fierce Ukrainian resistance in an intercepted phone call.
The trooper said conditions had become so bad that “50 per cent” of his squadron were suffering from frostbite.
In a three-minute intercepted phone call to a commander, which was released by Ukrainian intelligence, the soldier said troops were being forced to “ride around” with the dead because they wouldn't be transported out.
He also said troops had been bogged down by Ukrainian resistance and lacked proper amenities and medical supplies.
“We expected to arrive with four M-30 tents – and we've ended up with only one … And even that one tent ended up being ’not for us’,” he said.
“They didn't even give us and heat stoves.”
The disillusioned soldier said they were now being forced to live in trenches and didn’t have enough armour while being stuck outside Mykolaiv for days despite being promised a “swift” victory.
“Even Chechnya wasn‘t this F***** bad,” the commander complains after learning Russian troops were ”bombed by our own plane”.
“We were thinking it‘d be a f***** victory parade,” the soldier says, adding: ”This is a f***** circus, not a ’military operation’ … this is f***** b*******.”
It comes amid reports that Russian troops could run out of food and ammunition in three days.
“According to the available information, Russian occupation forces operating on the territory of Ukraine have ammunition and food supplies for no more than three days,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said.
“The situation is similar with fuel, which is replenished by tank trucks. The occupiers were unable to organise a pipeline to meet the needs of the grouping of troops.”
‘POISONING, SUDDEN ILLNESS, ACCIDENT’: PLOT TO CRUSH PUTIN
Russia’s elite are planning to crush Russian President Vladimir Putin and “restore economic ties with the West”, according to Ukrainian intel.
“Poisoning, sudden illness, accident — Russia’s elite is considering removing Putin,” the Chief Directorate of Intelligence for the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine said in a post on Facebook on Sunday.
According to the ministry, a group of “influential people” has united in Russia to “remove Putin from power as soon as possible and restore economic ties with the West, which were destroyed by the war in Ukraine.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov is believed to be the man that would replace Mr Putin if the conspiring group got their way, according to the intel, citing Russian sources.
Ukraine’s directorate claims relations between Mr Bortnikov and Mr Putin have been strained of late with Russia’s president blaming the top spy for “fatal miscalculations” in the invasion of Ukraine.
“Bortnikov and his department were responsible for analysing the mood of the population of Ukraine and the capacity of the Ukrainian army,” the directorate said.
Washington and Brussels’ co-ordinated response over the Ukraine conflict has made Russia the most-sanctioned country in the world, sending the ruble into free-fall and accelerating already spiralling inflation.
Officials in Moscow have sought to downplay the gravity of the Western penalties, promising that Russia will adapt. Mr Putin has said that the country will emerge stronger from the crisis.
But the sanctions have sparked hectic scenes at supermarkets in Russia, with customers bulk-buying long-life essentials such as buckwheat, a popular toasted grain that can be eaten both as a side dish or a main course.
In a televised government meeting, Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko tried to downplay the sanctions.
“I want to calm our citizens: we are fully self-sufficient when it comes to sugar and buckwheat,” Ms Abramchenko said.
“There is no need to panic-buy these goods. There is enough for everybody. Panic-buying only destabilises the distribution network,” she said.
Images of empty shelves and Russians standing in long lines to buy sugar have circulated on social media in recent days.
Ms Abramchenko said that Russia this year planned to sow more sugar beet and buckwheat.
“This means that the new harvest will ensure the availability of sugar and buckwheat on the shelves of stores, and Russian confectioners and bakers will receive the necessary amount of sugar,” she added.
CRYING SOLDIERS TURN ON ‘LIAR’ PUT IN
Russian troops captured in Ukraine have urged their people to rise up against President Vladimir Putin while warning that their fellow soldiers are being thrown in mass graves.
The group of Russian soldiers made the stunning admission while speaking out against their government during a press conference with news agency Interfax-Ukraine, telling fellow citizens to not “look at the zombies”.
Alexei Zheleznyak, Mustafaev Mugsad, Igor Rudenko, Alexander Fomenko and others nearly wept as they told the press conference of their opposition to the Russian invasion, according to The Mirror.
Mr Zheleznyak, a soldier of the 34th separate motorised rifle brigade stationed in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic of Russia, told the conference he warned Putin he would never be able to send enough troops to Ukraine to take over.
He said that Mr Putin “is a liar and a deceiver of all our people”.
‘‘Putin, without declaring war, is bombing residents, hospitals, cities of Ukraine,” he said, according to translations of the conference.
“People of Russia, don’t look at the zombies. The Ukrainian people are a brave people. They will stop this (Russian) equipment even without weapons. They are united.
“No matter how much Putin sends his troops here, he will not capture this territory … Our commander-in-chief is a liar and a deceiver of all our people.
“He deceived not only us, but the whole of Russia. He simply made fascists out of us.”
Mr Mugsad, of the 34th separate motorised rifle brigade of the Russian Federation, also urged Russian citizens to ignore state propaganda in their home country.
“People will remember our aggression for centuries,” he said.
“People, military men of Russia, finally take off your rose-coloured glasses and see what is happening in Ukraine.”
He also apologised that “the troops of the Russian Federation brought grief and destruction, in one day crossing out the peaceful life of the Ukrainian people”.
Mr Rudenko, signalman of the 126th separate coastal defence brigade of the Russian Federation, said that his “decision to surrender was the right” one.
He said that the Russian troops had already lost and that the Ukrainian military would “destroy” them, claiming that 15,000 had already died.
However, official estimates put the figure of casualties much lower.
“If you (the Russian army) have the honour remaining, do not repeat my mistakes,” he said.
“Take the troops away, because Putin does not need us. He does not even take the corpses. They are thrown into mass graves. It’s hard to see.”
Commander of the automobile department of the 126th separate coastal defence brigade, Mr Fomenko, appealed to his fellow citizens to protest the ongoing conflict.
“Do not be afraid of our government,” he said.
“They will not trample on the crowd. Yes, they will detain 10,00-20,000 people, but there are more of you.
“You can go out and stop this chaos. Peaceful people suffer here, children.”
Russia is yet to respond to the press conference, which follows on from videos of captured soldiers expressing their regret over the invasion.
It is not clear what conditions the soldiers were appearing under in the press conference, and whether they were in anyway forced or coerced into speaking out against the Kremlin.
Meanwhile in Russia, a huge pro-rally war was held in Moscow on Friday, where photographers captured tens of thousands of Russians singing the national anthem as Mr Putin stood on stage.
In his speech, he told the crowd: “Sevastopol (capital of Crimea) did the right thing when they put up a barrier to neo-Nazis and radicals, which is already happening on other territories.
“(The) people of Donbass also disagreed with this, and straightaway they organised military operations against (the Nazis). They were surrounded and shelled by guns, the Ukrainians sent air strikes against them.
“This is called genocide. It is to save people from this suffering and genocide that we launched our military operation.
“There is no greater love than giving up one’s soul for one’s friends.”
Russia’s invasion into Ukraine is now grinding into its third week.
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