According to official data from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after calculating the losses since the beginning of the operation in Donbass:
“As of October 28, 2017, since the beginning of the ATO, combat losses amounted to 10 thousand 710 military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, of which irrevocable - 2 333 , sanitary - 8 thousand 377 (wounded and injured as a result of hostilities) "Non-combat losses during this time amounted to 10 103 person. Of this amount 2150 people died, the rest were forced to leave the service due to health reasons. Total 20813 . Of course, deserters are not taken into account, which, according to various sources, amount to more than 2000 - 7622 - 10 thousand and are missing. Rounded all losses within 30,000 - 31,000 people.
Besides:
"More 2200 These are civilians who died in the course of hostilities. The number of civilians who have been injured as a result of the conflict is estimated at between 7000 to 9000 Human".
Losses of the militia, special forces and "Russian volunteers" killed approximately 2000
man, there is no accurate reliable information.
The figures from official and unofficial sources differ significantly - from one to more than three thousand killed. "The number of dead separatists, Russian military and mercenaries over the three years of the conflict in the Donbass - more than three thousand - is called by the volunteers of the "Cargo 200 from Ukraine to Russia" project." The number of total losses is unknown. Various Ukrainian sources claim 5,000 - 8,000 - 12,000 or more killed opponents. Which again is propaganda and not true.
By alternative according to "The total losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of November 08, 2017 amount to almost 54000
people (including the "cargo" of 200 and 300, as well as the missing and deserters)!" Of these, 1660 foreign mercenaries from 39 countries, including: 550 people PMC from Poland "ASBS Othago", led by the Minister of Defense of Poland, more 10 Poles from the special forces of the Grom MO, another 430 ordinary citizens of Poland. Total Poles - 990 people. In addition: 160 people from the US PMC "Academi", 80 people from the US PMC "Greystone", 120 ordinary US citizens, 40 CIA employees and the FBI.The head of US advisers, ATO coordinator, Major General Randy Key and three of his deputies (US officers) were also killed.A total of 383 Americans.
In combat operations, the following were irretrievably lost (shot down): 4 AN-26 aircraft, 2 AN-30B reconnaissance aircraft, 42 Su-25 aircraft (more than it was at the beginning of hostilities), 13 Su-24 aircraft, 29 Mi- 8 and Mi-24, 9 An-2 aircraft, 6 Yak-40 and Yak-52 aircraft, 2 Il 76 aircraft, 3 SU-27 aircraft, 2 MiG-29 aircraft. Losses are given as of November 08, although for obvious reasons the list ends in the first days of September. In total, 112 units of aircraft and helicopters were lost.
As for other technology:
As for tanks: the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine consisted of: 617 T-64 units, 76 T-64BM Bulat units, 10 T-84U Oplot units. In storage were: 986 T-64 units, 474 T-72 units, 273 T-80 units. In total, 620 units were lost during the battles, of which: 572 - "T-64"; 26 - T-64 BM "Bulat"; 10 - "T-72"; 2 - T-84U "Oplot", 2 - "leopard" (delivered not so long ago from Poland - only 34 units).
Losses:
40 MLRS 9k57 "Uragan" (based on the "ZIL-135LM" or four-axle tractor "Maz-537"), 14 units of MLRS 9k58 "Smerch" (based on the four-axle tractor "Maz-543"), 2 ZSU "Shilka" , 72 - ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, 2 - Osa air defense systems, 190 - D-30, D-20 howitzers, 35 - 2A65 Msta-B howitzers 152 mm, 1 - Polish 152-mm self-propelled gun - howitzer vz.77 "Dana", 7 - anti-tank 100 mm guns MT-12 "Rapier", 92 - 120 mm mortars, 70 - 82 mm 2B9 and 2B14 mortars, 3 - mortars "Vasilyok", 7 - 240 mm heavy self-propelled mortars "Tulip", 24 - self-propelled guns 2S19 "Msta-S", 19 - self-propelled guns 2S9 "Nona", 30 - self-propelled guns 2S3 "Acacia", 60 - self-propelled guns 2S1 "Carnation", 3 - self-propelled guns 2S5 "Hyacinth-S", 5 - SAU 2S7 "Pion", 3 - Rocket launchers "Tochka-U", 429 - BMP, 137 - BMD, 582 - armored personnel carriers. That is, in total, 1827 armored vehicles (not counting tanks), artillery and multiple rocket launchers were irretrievably lost. And together with the tanks: 2447 units! By the way, this number also includes equipment captured by the militias.
According to the UN as of September 30, 2016, the victims of the conflict of all parties in Ukraine were 31,805: 9,574 killed and 22,231 affected.
The number of those who fled to other countries as of November 2016 amounted to 1.5 million people, most of whom fled to Russia and Belarus - 1.15 million and 149 thousand, respectively. 7,967 people applied for asylum to Germany, 7,267 to Italy, 5,423 to Poland, 3,176 to France, 2,742 to Sweden, 286 to Moldova, 80 to Romania, 71 to Hungary, 26 to to Slovakia.
investigative committee Russian Federation stated that as of February 2, 2017, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Russia amounted to 2 302 448 , of which 1,039,977 were from the south-east of Ukraine and 1,361 were minors who came for treatment.
Frankfurter newspaper February 8, 2015 Allgemeine, citing unnamed military sources, said about 50,000 dead people during the conflict, taking into account all parties to the conflict.
According to Novorossiya and today the number is much higher. But as you understand, the figures, both official Ukrainian and those offered by Novorossiya, do not correspond to reality due to the need for propaganda work and, accordingly, they are underestimated or overestimated. In my opinion alternative source close to the truth, but also gives overestimated data.
To date, the army of Ukraine has been brought up to 250 thousand personnel. At least half of this number has combat experience. Now it is in many ways much better prepared and equipped than in 2014. Despite the significant amount of 50-65% of knocked out and lost equipment that was used earlier. And besides, a lot of motivated fighters. What about desertion, you say? And I will answer, but what about propaganda? And plus the loss of friends, relatives, loved ones leads to the fact that more and more people appear, and on both sides of the front, who are fighting not for money or even for ideals, but in order to avenge the dead.
Now a situation is developing similar to the one that happened in Kosovo and at any moment it can repeat itself. It only takes a few sensible commanders at the middle and highest levels of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a little "humanitarian" assistance from the West, especially since there is confusion and vacillation in the unrecognized republics.
In general, the extermination of the Slavs by the hands of the Slavs continues. And Bandera and Vlasov gleefully rub their sweaty palms together with pseudo-patriots on both sides under the leadership of their sponsors - both Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. Successfully making their gesheft on blood, reducing the unnecessary population. Well, their American, Israeli and other colleagues nod approvingly, saying: "You are on the right path, comrades."
It seems that few people paid attention to the recently published 18th special report of the UN Human Rights Office in Ukraine. Especially in terms of the situation in the war zone in the Donbass. And it's worth paying attention, in my opinion. Because this important document contains new evidence of Kyiv's systematic and deliberate lies about the losses of its own army during the so-called "ATO".
However, to begin with, let us recall that quite recently, in April of this year, in Washington President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko publicly estimated the number of soldiers and officers of their Armed Forces killed in the Donbass at 2.7 thousand people. And in order, apparently, to impress the indifferent American audience, Petr Alekseevich added that in three years his troops in the conflict zone lost more than the US army in 15 years of participation in the war in Afghanistan.
And now let's turn to the mentioned report, which came out of the bowels of the UN headquarters. In total, according to international experts, during the fighting in the south-east of Ukraine, with varying intensity, which has not stopped for the fourth year already (data are given for the period from mid-April 2014 to May 15, 2017), “34,056 civilian casualties were recorded. population, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and members of armed groups.”
What happens according to UN statistics, if you make elementary arithmetic operations? That by May 15, 2017, 7,313 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the Donbass (this number obviously includes the fighters of the so-called “dobrobats”, who, strictly speaking, were not included in the army in 2014-2015).
There simply cannot be any talk of any other servicemen in the document. After all, if international experts also included “members of armed groups” from the side of the defenders of Donbass (that is, militias and volunteers opposing the Armed Forces of Ukraine) to military personnel, then they would have to admit that two armies are fighting each other in the conflict zone. And since two armies are fighting, it means that at least two states are at war. Which would be tantamount to de facto recognition of the LPR and DPR at the UN level.
Since this is impossible to imagine today, it remains to take this fact for granted: according to UN estimates, by May 15 this year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost at least 7313 soldiers and officers during the ATO. This is about three times more than Poroshenko counted in Washington.
And the dead militias and volunteers - who are they from the point of view of Kyiv and the UN, which tenderly takes into account its opinion? Terrorists, militants, rioters, rebels. At worst - "separas". That is, they are completely civilian characters, who suddenly took up arms for some reason and entered into an endless slaughter with the official authorities. They, too, of course, regularly die in the Donbass steppes and copses. But these losses, of course, are taken into account by UN experts in the "civilian population" column. Along with completely peaceful residents of cities and villages of the South-East.
Does this seem like casuistic “Moscow propaganda” and distortion of facts to someone in Kyiv? So we will not insist on the finality of just such a figure. Ukrainian losses which follows directly from the UN report. Because the UN itself probably also gives an account of its approximateness. Of course, because their statistics are purely estimated. And another, more accurate, is not in the public domain by anyone. But from Kyiv on this occasion, a terry untruth is pouring in a stream. And the UN, too, no doubt, is aware of this.
Thus, in the 13th special report of the UN Human Rights Office for the fall of 2014, it is written in black and white: “The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and WHO believe that the data on the number of dead Ukrainian military, civilian and members of armed groups were underestimated by throughout the entire period of the anti-terrorist operation. The level of underreporting of military casualties by the government can be seen by comparing the data on the wounded provided by the National Security and Defense Council (3277) with the number of military personnel treated in the main military and civilian medical institutions located in the areas closest to the fighting - Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Zaporozhye. Their number was at least 4,800 people.”
Moreover, the data on the losses of Kyiv are falsified so clumsily and shamelessly that you can only wonder. Actually high level lie and do not blush. Judge for yourself.
So, in March 2016, during a visit to the United States, Poroshenko said that more than 2.7 thousand Ukrainian servicemen had died from the fire of some “joint Russian-terrorist forces” during the entire conflict.
We will not even try to understand why today, a year after that speech and again in the same USA, the President of Ukraine for some reason repeats exactly the same data. What, in the Donbass, none of the Ukrainian military died in a year? Yes, only last May data Ukrainian Committee of Soldiers' Mothers in the "ATO zone" killed 20 soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There is also a list of their names.
But something else is even more surprising. Already in August 2016 (five months after a trip to the United States), Poroshenko, speaking at a military parade on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Ukraine's independence in Kyiv, said: “We can confidently say that the enemy failed to realize a single strategic task, he was able to bring Ukraine to its knees. For this, 2504 of our soldiers died.
So how many, Pyotr Alekseevich, did you have fallen "heroes" by that time? 2.7 thousand as in March? Or two hundred people less than in August 2016?
Completely confused everything Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko. Six months later, in February 2017, he blurted out from a high podium: “Combat losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ... amounted to 2,197 people dead and about 8,000 wounded.”
However, another five days passed. And the Ukrainian president, at a meeting of the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, left no stone unturned from Muzhenko’s calculations: “2608 Ukrainian servicemen died during the aggression.”
In a word, not only UN experts cannot figure it out without vodka. But those who, despite the facts, still believe Poroshenko, let them at least listen to their own veterans who recently returned from the “ATO zone”. And with the true state of affairs with the irretrievable losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, they are familiar not only from the newspapers.
Most recently, on June 19, a crowd of these angry individuals in camouflage, led by a certain Bronislaw Sukhia, leader of the Revolutionary Right Forces(this organization includes several former battalions of the "Right Sector" *), in the very center of the Ukrainian capital, broke into the reception of the presidential administration and paralyzed the work of an important institution for a long time. Veterans demanded the release of their colleague Yuri Zabolotny, who was detained by the SBU on suspicion of preparing to overthrow the government. Among other slogans of the rebels were the following: “We demand to honestly report to society about the real losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and volunteer battalions in the ATO and punish those responsible for these losses and the lies that the authorities are silent about the self-sacrifice of thousands of our fighters. Poroshenko's impeachment!
What does it mean? In my opinion, there is only one option: if the militant Ukrainian nationalists in this context claim that Kyiv maliciously ignores the “self-sacrifice of thousands of our fighters,” then it turns out that the true level of losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is underestimated just by these “thousands” of those killed.
Many have tried to establish the true number of “cargo 200”, which has been regularly transported from Donbass to all cities and towns of Ukraine for the fourth year. Including in the seemingly impartial West. Often the numbers that amaze the imagination were obtained.
Like, for example, the German edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Back in February 2015, it published the following opinion: “German intelligence agencies estimate the probable death toll of Ukrainian servicemen and civilians to 50,000. These figures are ten times more than the declared official figures. The official figures are clearly too low and not credible.”
At the same time, there is not a word in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung about what such stunning assessments of German intelligence are based on. But the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies Military Balance, which also turned to this tragic topic, revealed the mechanism of its own calculations.
So, in London, they calculated that by 2017 (that is, over the three years of the conflict), the number of tanks in the Ukrainian army had decreased from 1435 to 788 units. Of the 3,000 infantry fighting vehicles, no more than 1,300 remained in service. Of the 3,350 units of cannon and rocket artillery, only 1,850 survived.
It is clear that most of these armored fighting vehicles simply burned down in the Donbass. But after all, tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled guns most often die along with crews and troops, if one was under their armor. At modern means Few remain alive.
The BMP-1 carries up to eight infantrymen plus three crew members. It turns out that even if we assume that none of the 1,700 destroyed Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicles was landing, and there were only crews in them, then even then big share probability that at least 5,100 servicemen were killed or wounded in them. With paratroopers in the fighting compartment, this number increases by about 3-3.5 times. So consider...
Summing up only these data, the International Institute for Strategic Studies Military Balance concluded that in 2014-2016 alone, the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass amounted to approximately 25 thousand soldiers and officers. And this is not counting those who were covered with shells and mines in trenches, dugouts, concentration points, in attacks on foot. And those in a positional war are always the majority.
Who to believe? Poroshenko, constantly confused in his testimony, but insisting on 2.7 thousand dead? General Muzhenko, who counted five thousand less of those? Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung with its 50,000 dead in this war? Analysts from London?
In any case, only one thing is known for sure - a senseless and non-stop slaughter is going on in the Donbass. Politicians seek to use its intermediate results in their own selfish interests. Because those who insist are a thousand times right: in any war, the first victim is always the truth.
But in conclusion, I offer another look at this tragedy. This time from the Ukrainian military hospital. Here is what Volodymyr Steblyuk, deputy head of the Military Medical Academy for clinical work, Colonel of the Medical Service of Ukraine, told local journalists in April: “They (Ukrainian soldiers and officers -“ SP ”) are sitting in the trenches. And the trenches have long been shot. So much so that the hit is 100 percent. Somewhere out there you didn’t hide deep - that’s it, you died under fire. This is not a war. This murder is coming. This is a shooting."
* In November 2014, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the extremist activities of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the Right Sector, the UNA-UNSO and the Tryzub im. Stepan Bandera. Their activity on the territory of Russia is prohibited.
Military expert Ruslan Taskaev, combat officer, military journalist, combatant
They never lie as much as before the elections, after the hunt and during the war. Usually the number of their own wounded and killed is underestimated by at least five to ten times, and the number of enemy losses is overestimated by the same amount. To inform about losses, there is a special instruction - which is obliged to adhere to very strictly.
But the Ukrainian military is too zealously fulfilling this instruction, underestimating its own losses in terms of killed already 20 times, and wounded up to 50 times.
Real losses
The militias claim about 1,500 killed Ukrainian soldiers, militants of the National Guard, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the SBU, members of radical paramilitary groups such as the Right Sector, Kolomoisky detachments, as well as mercenaries of foreign PMCs. The militias themselves suffered losses in the amount of about three hundred killed and the same number of wounded. The Ministry of Defense claims 45 of its own killed and more than a thousand "terrorists" killed. But even official statistics, according to the statements of the military themselves, are underestimated, since it is not so easy to get the status of a dead person in the ATO. Missing persons, deserters, corpses of persons (burnt), whose identity cannot be officially established, are not considered dead, which means that compensation is not paid. For example, if a helicopter crashes, an armored personnel carrier burns down, and there are several unmarked burnt corpses nearby, none of them is considered dead in the ATO until tests are done and an identity is established, which cannot be done quickly in the current conditions.
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According to local residents in the Izyum area, the data of the militia is much closer to reality than the official statistics of the Ministry of Defense.
In war, the most important place for collecting information about the losses and movements of units are hospitals and hospitals. In Chuguev, Izyum and other cities of the Kharkiv region, hospitals and morgues are full. Only on June 2-3, at least 60 Ukrainian security officials died in the battles for Krasny Liman, hundreds were wounded.
But the inhabitants of Izyum are not talking about hundreds, but already about thousands of wounded. In addition to hospitals in the Kharkiv region, the wounded are transported to sanatoriums in Central Ukraine, for example, in the Zhytomyr and Vinnitsa regions.
Before entering the battle, the Ukrainian army suffered losses - during the repair and preparation of equipment from explosions and fires, up to ten Ukrainian soldiers were killed, three tanks were destroyed, the Grad installation and self-propelled guns, one front-line bomber, An-2, BMD, Mi-8 and others. Moreover, these data are only from open sources.
To date, according to the headquarters of the militia, only from equipment burned or knocked out: 3 Hummers; 1 UAZ-469;
from 4 to 10 Kamaz trucks; 8 trucks of unknown brand; – 2 trucks"Ural"; from 4 to 5 Gas-66; 1 radio station based on GAZ-66; 5 D-30 howitzers; 1 installation “Carnation”, automatic mortar “Cornflower”; 3 “Grad” installations; from 2 to 3 anti-aircraft installations; 3 mortars; from 1 to 2 self-propelled guns "Nona-S"; 4 T-64 tanks; from 40 to 60 armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles), among which exactly 10 infantry fighting vehicles.
Among the aircraft, there are from 15 to 20 downed or completely disabled aircraft, including Mi-24 attack helicopters, Mi-8 military transport helicopters, Su-25 attack aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft. In terms of helicopters, this is almost a third of all helicopters in Ukraine ready for battle.
These losses do not take into account the equipment captured by the militias from the Ukrainian security forces, and these are infantry fighting vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled guns, IMR, armored personnel carriers, and now electronic warfare equipment and even heavy tanks.
On the reasons for the heavy losses of Ukrainian forces
The first reason is the nature of the so-called. anti-terrorist operation. It is carried out by different military groups, whose actions are often simply not coordinated with each other. Nowhere in official sources are the losses of the Alpha special unit mentioned, however, we are reliably aware of one case already typical of the ATO, which well illustrates the nature of the military operation and confirms the huge losses of Ukrainian troops.
About a month ago, "Alfa" from one of the Western regions of Ukraine moved forward on a combat mission, choosing the left flank, the right flank was taken by the National Guard under the cover of paratroopers. After some time, having exposed the flanks, the National Guard and the paratroopers disappeared, and Alpha fell into a five-hour encirclement, from which it emerged with 30 wounded, five of whom were seriously wounded. And therefore, the reports of the militias that the Sumy "Alpha" was completely destroyed as a combat unit, and special forces groups from Western and central regions suffered huge losses, are not fiction or overstatement, but just a statement of facts.
In any war, there are cases of shelling of their own troops. The Donbas ATO is no exception. The whole world knows footage of Ukrainian helicopters shooting down a broken checkpoint near Volnovakha.
In addition, the employees of the 51st Mechanized Brigade fired at themselves several times and came under fire from the National Guard. Strelkov used experience until recently Chechen wars, namely, the deliberate provocation of mutual shelling. A month ago, such a successful operation on the part of the militias "crawled out" in the official reports of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. A "successful" repulse of an attack on a Ukrainian checkpoint was announced. It was reported that a jeep was burned, as it turned out, it was a Hummer, which was in service with the 95th airborne brigade. The shelling went on for several hours.
The inconsistency of actions and the unwillingness to fight Ukrainian conscripts is the subjective reason for the heavy losses of the Ukrainian "siloviki", not counting the losses of the Makhnovist battalions of the Kolomoisky type "Donbass" (in the first battle lost 50% of the staff wounded), "Dnepr" (as you know, already recruited "Dnepr- 2" and "Dnepr-3"), "Azov". But there are also objective reasons, namely: the advancing side always bears big losses than the defending one, especially in the conditions of urban warfare with partisan and sabotage groups.
Where do the corpses go?
Ukraine is far from the best economic conditions. Many contractors go to serve in the ATO only for the sake of the status of a participant in hostilities, which gives a whole range of benefits. All ATO participants are promised compensation for injuries and deaths. In terms of the number of wounded and killed, a tidy sum for the state is running up.
Therefore, the 200s, where there is an opportunity to hide, can be recorded as defectors and deserters. This step "kills" two birds with one stone - the family is not informed about the dead, but hope is given, therefore, the reason for indignation is removed, and secondly, the state completely gets rid of payments for the death of a combatant. According to the militia, about 30 conscripts went over to the side of the Donbass in Kramatorsk ( reverse process, by the way, is not observed), but no more.
A clear instruction was given to maintain the status of a combatant even for the wounded. The Ukrainian newspaper "Vesti" reports that in Odessa the wounded are recorded as "participants in the accident", similar cases were noted in Zhytomyr.
Radicals from mercenary battalions, in particular, simply sprinkle their dead, where possible, with earth. Local residents testify to this practice (they even found a moving pit with earth where wounded militants were buried), and also confirms the declassified correspondence between Avakov and the commander of the Donbass battalion, who suffered numerous casualties in the first battle.
There are chalk quarries near Slavyansk - they found, according to local residents, drowned corpses. Probably, soon, fresh “common” graves will be dug up all over the north of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and the dead will be caught from ponds and rivers.
What happens when the truth comes out?
Know real amount killed and wounded in this war is the right of any citizen of Ukraine, since his fellow citizens on both sides are dying as a result of the unleashed new government military confrontation. Hiding this information is a crime.
The bitter truth about the dead and wounded will still find a way out. While it is hidden by all means. But this phenomenon is temporary, and not even the saddest. The saddest and most criminal thing is the incessant death of civilians in Donbass from shelling and air raids.
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The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has released its annual report The Military Balance-2016, which describes the combat capabilities and technical equipment of the armed forces of various countries of the world. With regard to Ukraine, it is indicated that our country suffered huge losses in armored vehicles and artillery, which can only be explained by the conduct of hostilities in the Donbass. Compared to the "pre-war" The Military Balance-2013, the losses of the Ukrainian army in weapons and equipment in some places amount to about 50% of the previous number. Notable losses the Russian army also suffered in technology. This concerns, first of all, artillery and armored combat vehicles.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies was founded in 1958 and is based in London. He specializes in coverage of military-political conflicts and issues annual reports on the combat capabilities of various armies of the world. Recently, one of these reports was released - The Military Balance-2016. A separate section of this document is devoted to the Ukrainian army. IISS experts mention the annexation of Crimea and note that the mobilization that was carried out to fight the separatists in eastern Ukraine demonstrated that the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are reduced due to an inadequate level of training and insufficient resources.
Context
Obama promised Poroshenko a billion
Commander-in-Chief 04/01/2016Donbass: a humanitarian crisis in the shadow of the media
Vatican Insider 04/10/2016Donbass embraces despair
Correspondent 03/12/2016 The report also states that in 2015, President Petro Poroshenko signed a law to increase the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 184 to 250 thousand. At the same time, according to IISS, the Ukrainian armed forces are still “using old Soviet equipment, and the military-industrial complex has begun to restore equipment that was previously in storage, including T-80 tanks. “The United States has begun supplying Ukraine with non-lethal military equipment,” the report says.Currently, according to the IISS, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are armed with 788 tanks, including 710 units of various modifications of the T-64 tank, 70 T-72 tanks and 8 T-80BV tanks. In addition, more than 1,300 tanks are in storage. Among them are 10 newest T-84 tanks (BM Oplot) and 20 obsolete Soviet T-55 tanks.
Also, the Ukrainian army has more than 1,300 units of armored combat vehicles (AFVs), including 210 infantry fighting vehicles (BMP-1) and 960 BMP-2s, as well as over 1,850 units of cannon and rocket artillery. IISS specialists counted 133 Mi-24 attack helicopters, as well as 202 aircraft, which are part of the Ukrainian Air Force. These are fighters, attack aircraft, training, military transport and reconnaissance aircraft. The information on the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is not exhausted by the number of armored vehicles and aviation - the report indicates enough exact amount air defense systems, warships, anti-tank weapons, various types helicopters, anti-tank missile systems, armored personnel carriers, combat reconnaissance and patrol vehicles, etc. etc.
At first glance, the force seems quite impressive, but if we compare the data of 2016 with what Ukraine had before the start of the war, then a huge decline is striking, primarily in artillery and armored vehicles. The review of The Military Balance-2013 indicates that two and a half years ago Ukraine had 1100 different modifications of T-64 tanks (165 T-80 tanks, 600 T-72, 650 T-64 and 20 T-55 tanks were in storage); over 3 thousand armored fighting vehicles, including 994 BMP-1 and 1434 BMP-2, as well as 3351 units of cannon and rocket artillery. At the same time, in 2013, IISS experts pointed out that due to the failure of the defense reform, the Ukrainian army is able to defend only “limited territory”, and a large number of Soviet equipment needs to be replaced.
A simple comparison of both documents shows that over the past two years, the Ukrainian army has lost more than 300 tanks, more than half of the armored fighting vehicles, and almost 50% of artillery systems. Such losses can only be explained by the hostilities in the Donbass, the active phase of which took place in the summer of 2014 and in the winter of 2015, and they were carried out exclusively with the weapons of the ground forces. Combat aviation was used on a limited scale, so its decline is calculated in units.
It is also noteworthy that relatively few tanks were taken from storage to make up for losses, but the losses in armored combat vehicles and artillery, obviously, turned out to be irreplaceable. At the same time, in April, the speaker of the Ministry of Defense Oksana Gavrilyuk reported that since the beginning of the ATO, as of April 2016, 46.5 units of weapons and military equipment had been repaired (in January this figure was 34 thousand units). Thus, according to the Ukrainian officials, the restoration of the combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is proceeding at a good pace. British experts, obviously, do not share this point of view.
Who could inflict such losses on the Ukrainian army? In August 2015, the General Staff published an analysis of the conduct of the ATO in August-September 2014, in which it indicated that by the beginning of August, about 40 thousand personnel were involved in the ATO, including 32 thousand military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and 5.5 thousand military personnel. units of heavy weapons and military equipment. The General Staff assessed the ratio of forces with the militants as 1 to 1, however, it is probably only about manpower, because the enemy did not have a comparable amount of artillery, armored vehicles, and even more so aviation. Their leaders often complained about this, in particular, Igor Girkin (Strelkov). For example, breaking through from Slavyansk, Girkin lost almost all of his armored vehicles: two tanks, two BMP-2s and one BMD-1. At the same time, two more tanks "strelkovtsy" were able to save and deliver to Donetsk.
After the defeat near Ilovaisk and the end of the 2014 campaign, which was unsuccessful for the Ukrainian army, President Petro Poroshenko announced the huge losses suffered by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “At 60-65% military equipment in the units that stood on the first lines in the conflict zone, was destroyed. There was nothing to defend ourselves with,” the head of state said. And this assessment is in many respects close to the conclusions of the IISS specialists. It should be noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered the most damage when they tried to take control of the border section in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and came under fire from Russian artillery, which they fired with impunity from their territory.
Thus, The Military Balance data indicates that the Ukrainian military-industrial complex has not yet been able to restore the combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, lost during the war in Donbass. On the other hand, such huge losses are another indisputable evidence of the invasion of the regular Russian army into the territory of Ukraine and its active participation in the battles, because the irregular formations of the DPR and LPR, which were almost completely destroyed by August 20, 2014, simply had no forces. and the means to inflict such great damage on the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
By the way, the Russian army also suffered losses in armored vehicles and artillery, which can also be tracked according to The Military Balance reports. For example, in 2013, the RF Armed Forces had more than 2,800 tanks and another 18,000 units were in storage. But according to 2016 data, the number of tanks in the Russian armed forces decreased by 100 units, and 500 tanks were taken from warehouses. True, in 2016, 600 modernized T-72B3 tanks appeared at the disposal of the RF Armed Forces, which were not in the report for 2013, so we are most likely talking not so much about heavy losses, but about the technical re-equipment of the Russian army.
But the noticeable decline in artillery and the fleet of armored combat vehicles is difficult to explain only by rearmament and decommissioning of old models. So, in 2013, the RF Armed Forces had more than 7360 AFVs, and in 2016 - already 5400, with the most lost BMP-1 and BMP-2 - a total of 1500 units. At the same time, the warehouses where 8500 BMP-1 and BMP-2 are stored remained untouched. As for cannon and rocket artillery, The Military Balance for 2013 indicates the figure of 5436+ units, and in 2016 - already 4180+. Apparently, the Ukrainian army did not remain in debt at all, especially with regard to artillery duels. However, unlike the Ukrainian one, the Russian military-industrial complex can easily make up for all the damage caused, and maybe it has already made up for it, if we take into account the rather numerous facts of the destruction of Russian tanks during the fighting in the Donbass.
The fighting in the Donbass continues, adding to the stunning statistics of mutual losses of the warring parties.
Here is what Novosti Donetska i DNR reported on February 25: “The DNR militia reports a violent tank battle in the south of Donetsk people's republic- Mariupol direction, southern front. In Shirokino, the forces of the people's militia of Donbass and the security forces of the Azov battalion converged.
"The tank battle is going on in Shirokino. This is between Novoazovsk and Mariupol. Both from our side and from the side of the enemy, 3-4 units of heavy equipment are involved," - informs the headquarters of the DPR on February 25, 2015.
So far, the wounded have not been admitted to the Novoazovsk hospital. On February 24, two wounded and three shell-shocked militiamen arrived. Today, several DPR fighters came with minor injuries, also after yesterday's battle. To date, there are no wounded in the Novoazovsk hospital.
Shirokino was considered the territory of the DPR, until after the new year it was suddenly attacked by Azov. Now it is considered a neutral territory, and after the announcement of a truce on February 15, Shirokino is the hottest spot in Donbass.
Earlier it was reported about the battles of the militias and security forces in the area of Sand. The DPR forces are suffering heavy losses, as the command forbids opening artillery fire.
These are the news of the DPR and the Donetsk People's Republic on February 25. Despite the fact that the ceasefire regime is "generally respected."
Meanwhile, on February 25, terrible figures of real losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the ATO in Donbas were once again published.
During the ATO, Ukraine lost only 26,000 servicemen killed! See full list losses of the Ukrainian army in New Russia.
Until today, the latest data on the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the so-called ATO in the southeast of the country, leaked to the media, were data on losses for the period from May 2 to September 5. The total losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine killed, wounded, captured, missing and deserters were then called
47 thousand 103 people.
According to the FSB of the Russian Federation, the total losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the punitive operation against the militias of Novorossia, the so-called ATO, from April 3 to February 15, inclusive, guaranteed (according to confirmed data) amounted to:
KILLED: TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED EIGHTEEN APU servicemen. Including: - from the composition of the units of the "Right Sector" - 3,729 people.
- Military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - 13,862 people (in mainly 25th airborne Dnepropetrovsk brigade, 95th airmobile Zhytomyr brigade, 24th motorized Lvov brigade, 79th airmobile brigade, 51st, 24th and 72nd mechanized brigades, other units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine)
- Servicemen of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine - 4,623 people.
- Servicemen from SBU units - 379 people.
- Ukrainian border guards - 249 people.
- US military personnel (from the special forces of the DIA, FBI and CIA) - 88 people.
- Mercenaries of private military companies: "ASBS Othago", Poland, Asademi and Greystone Limited, USA and others - 737 people.
- Servicemen of other categories of armed formations - 1781 people.
For reference: according to the operational data of the FSB, the killed servicemen from among the militants of the "Right Sector", nat. guards, battalions "Aidar", "Azov" and "Dnepr" were secretly taken to Dnepropetrovsk and secretly burned in a crematorium. The dead soldiers of the "Right Sector" are officially listed as missing.
