The Russian military has surprised many analysts with its skillful resistance to the Ukrainian counteroffensive. After all, up until now, the Russian forces had accustomed observers to botched offensives and lackluster organization.
For almost two months, the Russian forces have been putting up a fierce defense against Ukraine’s mechanized brigades.
However, the Russian military is taking heavy casualties in the process, forcing Moscow to create new units.
New Formations, Old Problems in Ukraine
It is believed that the Russian Ministry of Defense has started grouping new formations in an attempt to make its ground forces more robust with additional reserves, according to British Military Intelligence.
“Since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has mainly deployed mobilized reservists to back-fill established formations or as part of territorial defense infantry regiments. It has rarely established new, all-arms organizations such as combined arms armies which are designed to be a self-sufficient force,” the British Military Intelligence assessed in a recent estimate of war.
There have been a number of combined arms formations, such as the 3rd Army Corps, but they have performed poorly because of the lack of experience along with the general reasons of effectiveness that plague the Russian military overall.
“Russia will likely deploy any new formation as a reserve force in Ukraine. However, in the longer term, Russia aspires to strengthen its forces facing NATO,” the British Military Intelligence stated.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced plans to enlarge the armed forces by several hundred thousand troops. However, that plan is unlikely to happen in time to face the “special military operation” in Ukraine. The Russian recruitment and training apparatus simply can’t deal with the losses in Ukraine and the enlarging of the armed forces at the same time.
“Without a major new wave of mandatory mobilization, Russia is unlikely to find enough new troops to resource even one new army,” the British Military Intelligence added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been very careful not to bring the war to the everyday lives of ordinary Russians, especially those around major urban centers like Moscow and St. Petersburg. New waves of mobilizations might start affecting those parts of the population Putin wants to shield to maintain control of the country.
Russian Casualties in Ukraine War
Meanwhile, on day 527 of the Russian invasion, the Russian military is starting to lose more men every day. Over the last weeks, the Russian forces averaged around 450 to 500 men killed, wounded, or captured every day. But in the last 24 hours, the Kremlin lost more than 600 troops, as well as over 100 heavy weapon systems.
Overall, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that as of Thursday, Ukrainian forces have killed and wounded approximately 247,850 Russian troops, destroyed 322 fighter, attack, bomber, and transport jets, 311 attack and transport helicopters, 4,224 tanks, 4,892 artillery pieces, 8,234 armored personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles, 704 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 18 boats and cutters, 7,372 vehicles, and fuel tanks, 465 anti-aircraft batteries, 4,077 tactical unmanned aerial systems, 721 special equipment platforms, such as bridging vehicles, and four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems, and 1,347 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses.
A 19FortyFive Defense and National Security Columnist, Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
From 19FortyFive
