Losses among Russian soldiers in the war in Ukraine are close to the psychological threshold of 300,000. Or at least that’s what the Kiev General Staff estimates, because calculating the actual number of dead and wounded on the battlefield is practically impossible and both fronts refuse to provide official data. What is certain is that fighting continues on the ground in what Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko believes is “a serious stalemate” where “no one can do anything to strengthen or advance their position”. “People are dying,” says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ally, once again asking to sit at the negotiating table to find a solution. And inviting them to do so without preconditions, a statement which in reality conceals the request to Kiev not to be intransigent on the possible transfer of territories. Like the Donetsk region, where large parts are under the occupation of Russian forces and where Moscow’s army has been conducting a heavy offensive to conquer Avdiivka since October 10th. The Russians would be trying to advance on the sides to threaten the logistical lines and favor the encirclement of the center. But in this case they are having more than one difficulty: «If we talk about the number of losses, Avdiivka is the biggest defeat for the Russians» given that these «amount to almost 6,500», reported the spokesperson of the Tauride Defense Forces, Alexander Shtupun. An important percentage compared to the total which, according to an analysis by New York Times of mid-August, corresponded to 500 thousand dead or wounded soldiers among the Ukrainian and Russian ranks. In the Avdiivka area, according to Kiev, Moscow would have gathered around 40 thousand units, out of a total of 400 thousand scattered across Ukraine. Furthermore, the former mercenaries of the Wagner group joined the Chechen Akhmat battalion, as reported by the militia commander Apti Alaudinov. An additional string in Moscow’s bow, which is also reportedly using a new version of the Lancet kamikaze drone, the Izdeliye-53, capable of distinguishing the types of targets and increasing the success rates of attacks, as explained by Institute for the study of war. Meanwhile, like every 29 October, ‘The Restitution of Names’ was celebrated in Russia, the event organized by the Nobel Memorial Prize winner association with which the victims of Stalin’s regime are remembered. The Kremlin often glosses over Soviet crimes and the event is seen as something unpatriotic, which is why it has banned the commemoration from being held in the central Lubyanka square. The place was surrounded by metal barriers and police. Despite this, Memorial’s co-president, Oleg Orlov, still went to the tombstone to pay homage to the victims.
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