11 months ago
54
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s official tally of Russian troop losses topped 300,000. The toll on both sides in this failed, illegal, and unprovoked invasion is sickening, but Russia’s willingness to continue feeding men into a meat grinder, often for little or no visible achievement, is incredible—in the worst sense of that word.
At Bakhmut, at Lyman, and at numerous locations in Kherson before its withdrawal west and south of the Dnipro River, Russia has demonstrated a capacity for wasting lives that is almost as puzzling as it is disturbing. Something similar is happening in southern Ukraine right now, as Russia continually tries to retake lost positions even when Ukraine is well positioned to defend the area. The result has been stunning losses.
However, nowhere may illustrate Russia's indifference to death more than the events that have taken place this month near the town of Avdiivka. In three weeks, Russia has thrown away between 4,000 and 6,500 men, hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks in an attempt to encircle this location. The result has been a scrapyard of wrecked machinery that exceeds even Russia’s disastrous assault on Vuhledar or the triple-down fiasco of the failed bridge at Bilohorivka.
