RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Kiev has lost nearly 500 pieces of Western war machinery – Moscow
Kiev lost over 500 pieces of military and special equipment while trying to break through Russian fortifications during the course of its largely unsuccessful counteroffensive launched last summer,
according to the chief of Russia’s Engineering Troops, Lt. Gen. Yury Stavitsky.
Russian defensive fortifications have proven to be highly effective against Ukraine’s hardware, including Western-supplied equipment, he claimed in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published on Friday.
Among those losses were over 180 pieces of Western-supplied materiel, including German-designed Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Stavitsky said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry estimated earlier this month that Kiev had received more than $203 billion in foreign assistance since the outbreak of the conflict and had been supplied with over 1,600 pieces of missile and artillery equipment, over 200 air defense systems, 5,220 tanks and armored vehicles, and more than 23,000 drones.
Stavitsky noted that Russian military engineers made a “significant contribution” in repelling the Ukrainian counteroffensive and had constructed an impressive defense system, despite harsh weather and the mass use of high-precision weapons and UAVs by Kiev’s forces.
The commander stated that by the time Kiev had launched its summer operation, Russia had already dug out more than 3,600 kilometers of trenches and communication passages, created over 150,000 trench shelters for equipment, and weaponized over 4,500 dugouts and 12,000 reinforced concrete structures.
“Thus, by the time the enemy launched its counteroffensive, there was already a deeply echeloned system of defensive lines, positions and areas in place that was up to 120 kilometers deep along the entire line of combat,” the official explained.
“Considering the scale and timing of the tasks, we can say with confidence that this is an unprecedented case in the history of wars and armed conflicts,” Stavitsky stated. He added that the fortified defense lines have made it possible to “increase the survivability of Russian troops and the effectiveness of the use of weapons and military equipment by five to six times.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed earlier this week that Kiev’s much-touted counteroffensive had “completely failed” and that Ukraine’s statehood was now under threat of being dealt “an irreparable and very serious blow.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry has described Kiev’s losses throughout the conflict as catastrophic, estimating that the Ukrainian military has lost nearly 400,000 troops – killed and wounded – since February 2022, including over 160,000 during its counteroffensive, launched in early June.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russian oil depot on fire after attempted Ukrainian drone attack
Four oil tanks at a large storage facility in the town of Klintsy in Russia's western Bryansk region caught fire on Friday after the military brought down a Ukrainian strike drone there, Alexander Bogomaz, the regional governor, said.
Aided by a specialised firefighting train, firefighters tackled what he said was a serious blaze at the facility controlled by oil major Rosneft. Nobody was hurt in the attack, he added.
"An aeroplane-style drone was brought down by the defence ministry using radio-electronic means. When the aerial target was destroyed, its munitions were dropped on the territory of the Klintsy oil depot," Bogomaz wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He said air defence units had brought down two other Ukrainian drones on Friday over other parts of Bryansk, a region that borders Ukraine.
Both Russia and Ukraine have targeted each other's energy infrastructure in strikes designed to disrupt supply lines and logistics and to demoralise their opponent as they try to get the edge in a nearly two-year war that shows no sign of ending.
Bogomaz posted footage that showed firefighters directing water hoses at giant flames around the storage tanks, at least one of which looked to have been badly damaged, as thick smoke filled the air.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, neither confirmed nor denied Ukraine had been behind the attack, but said "such events regularly occur at the aggressor state's military facilities".
Yusov told national TV he expected the incident to complicate logistics for Russian troops, increasing Ukrainian forces' "room for manoeuvre".
Several Ukrainian media, citing sources in the security services, said the GUR, which did not immediately reply to a request for comment, was behind the strike.
A gunpowder factory in the Tambov region had also been targeted and the results of that strike effort were being clarified, the Ukrainska Pravda outlet quoted a source as saying.
Russia's TASS state news agency said the fire at the oil depot covered an area of around 1,000 square metres with other reports saying it was getting bigger.
Earlier on Friday, the Russian Defence Ministry said it had destroyed a Ukrainian drone in the skies over the Bryansk region, where authorities regularly report drone attacks from Ukraine.
A Russian-appointed official said on Thursday Ukraine had tried and failed to target a Russian Baltic Sea oil terminal with a drone, in what appeared to be a rare attempt to strike a facility in St Petersburg.
A Ukrainian government minister was quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Thursday as saying that Ukraine had hit targets in St Petersburg using a domestically produced drone that flew 1,250 km (775 miles).
RT/Reuters