On July 13 local time, Russian TASS reported, citing military expert Andrey Marochko, that in the area where a 'special military operation' was launched by Russia last week, the total number of casualties among Ukrainian armed forces (including foreign mercenaries) exceeded 9900. Among these casualties, the Russian 'Oriental' cluster units caused the greatest damage to the enemy.
After analyzing data from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Marochiko wrote on social media: "The enemy suffered casualties and irrecoverable losses, with approximately 9,940 Ukrainian soldiers and mercenaries killed. In the area under the responsibility of the 'Eastern' cluster during operations in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Zaporizhia Oblast, the Ukrainian armed forces experienced the worst losses in terms of personnel."
Marochiko added that over the course of a week, the Russian forces destroyed nearly 5,000 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones, 2 tanks, 3 multiple-launcher rocket systems, 59 field artillery pieces, 38 electronic warfare and anti-artillery operations stations, as well as more than 570 various types of enemy combat vehicles.
Recently, Ukraine has continuously targeted energy facilities and logistics lines within Russia, leading some Western media to create an atmosphere suggesting that Russia is on the verge of defeat. However, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Zhuluny, recently criticized this view, calling it a “dangerous misreading” of the current situation.
Zhang Yao, Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of Shanghai HuanTai International Strategic Research Center and Senior Researcher, also stated on the Observer Network that the continuous media coverage in the West claiming that 'Russia is about to collapse' is part of a propaganda campaign. While drone attacks in Ukraine have indeed had some impact on Russia's energy supply and economy, there are no signs of the battlefield situation being reversed.
Zhang Yao pointed out that the Russian army is currently maintaining a full-line offensive, slowly advancing in ground combat, and has recently captured the important city of Konstantinovka in Donetsk Oblast. Since the Ukrainian army's counterattack failed in 2023, the initiative on the battlefield has been largely in the hands of the Russian army.
However, overall, Zhang Yao believes that the situation remains stalemate. The Russian army has not yet achieved decisive victories, and the Ukrainian army can still maintain the front line with great effort. Therefore, neither Russia nor Ukraine is likely to make concessions at the negotiating table. If Russia wants to put more pressure on Ukraine during negotiations, it will need to continue expanding its gains on the battlefield.
