In Russia, Vehicles Are Expensive But Soldiers Are Cheap—And That’s Why The Battle For Vovchansk Is Becoming An Infantry Massacre
David Axe | Jun 18, 2024 | 04:46pm EDT
A pair of Russian BMP fighting vehicles knocked out near Vovchansk. - KRIEGSFORSCHER CAPTUREFive weeks into Russia’s northern offensive in Ukraine, the battlefield in and around Vovchansk—the locus of the fighting just south of the Russia-Ukraine border—has become extremely dangerous for Russian armored vehicles.
So Russian infantry march into battle on foot—and die in huge numbers as Ukrainian drones and artillery take aim.
It’s not for no reason that the Russian casualty rate—both wounded and killed—increased this spring and summer. Total casualties may now exceed half a million. Ukraine’s own casualties are much lower.
Perversely, this bloodbath doesn’t portend an imminent end to the wider war. The Kremlin recruits, and rushes through cursory training, around 30,000 fresh troops every month—just enough to make good monthly losses.
So even as Russians die in shocking numbers in Vovchansk and other contested towns, the Russian army continues to replenish existing units and even form new ones. “They are preparing new forces for future advances,” explained Kriegsforscher, a Ukrainian marine corps drone operator supporting the Ukrainian 82nd Air Assault Brigade fighting in Vovchansk.
Vovchansk was the first big target of Russia’s northern offensive, which kicked off on May 10 with simultaneous attacks in several places along Ukraine’s northern border with Russia. But the Russian northern grouping of forces, tens of thousands of soldiers strong, never got past the industrial town four miles south of the border. . .
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/06/18/in-russia-vehicles-are-expensive-but-soldiers-are-cheap-and-thats-why-the-battle-for-vovchansk-is-becoming-an-infantry-massacre/