The Russian army continues to suffer devastating losses in the war with Ukraine and Vladimir Putin is now unlikely to be able to declare victory, according to an expert.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Monday that Russian military's capabilities on the battlefield are diminishing as they now lack junior military leaders following numerous deaths among the army’s lower-ranking officers.
It said: “ Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongst its mid and junior ranking officers in the conflict."
It added that these losses “will likely exacerbate its ongoing problems in modernising its approach to command and control“.
Dr Oscar Jonsson, author of The Russian Understanding of War, told The Mirror that these losses are unsurprising given their huge control problem and that they are “unable to declare victory with what they have right now“.
He said: “'They don’t have any non-commissioned officers (NCO), and very centralised decision-making where officers all the way to the top are in the battlefield.”
The MoD says they are likely deployed forwards “into harm’s way because they are held to an uncompromising level of responsibility“.
The losses come as Russian forces continue to rain bombs on the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in the Luhansk region.
Oleksandr Stryuk, head of the city’s military and civil administration, told the Times that the city was “essentially being destroyed ruthlessly block by block” and that 13,000 civilians are still sheltering amid the rubble.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), has said Russian President Vladimir Putin is choosing to concentrate all the forces and resources that can be scraped together in a desperate and bloody push to seize areas of eastern Ukraine.
But they also questioned the Kremlin’s strategy and said it may prove costly for Russia and would bring few returns.
Dr Jonsson says that while Russia is gaining ground that has only come from revising down its war aims at least four times, including giving up on Kyiv and Kharkiv.
“Only then when they concentrate on the smallest territory they have managed to achieve critical mass to attack them and take territory,“ he continued.
Dr Jonsson also pointed to the impact of “sheer exhaustion“ taking its toll and having a “disproportionate effect on their ability to operate“.
On top of that, they are “basically fighting this war with their contract soldiers and the new formations will make them dramatically less combat effective“, he continued.
Dr Jonsson questions how many more offensives Putin’s army can sustain.
“Probably not that many,“ he said.
He added: ‘‘But they aren’t going to go back home to the elites, and Russian people and say that the 10,000s of our soldiers lost, the destroyed economy was worth some more territory in southeastern Ukraine that is completely bombed to pieces was worth it. That is not a victory.’’
