Russia Claims 575 Foreign Contractors and Ukrainian Troops Taken Out in 24 Hours at ‘Meat Grinder’ Frontlines

Military Watch:

Russia Claims 575 Foreign Contractors and Ukrainian Troops Taken Out in 24 Hours at ‘Meat Grinder’ Frontlines

Russian TOS-1A Rocket Artillery System


The Russian Defence Ministry reported on April 29 that the Ukrainian Military and accompanying foreign military contractor units had taken extreme casualties in Donetsk over the past 24 hours, with 575 casualties sustained and 24 pieces of equipment destroyed including two American supplied AN/TPQ-50 counter battery radars. 

"Total enemy losses in this direction amounted to more than 575 Ukrainian servicepeople and mercenaries, two tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, two armoured fighting vehicles, twelve vehicles, two self-propelled artillery units Akatsiya and Gvozdika, one D-30 howitzer, and two US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radars," the ministry reported, as Russian aviation launched seven sorties in the area while artillery initiated 58 firing missions. 

The Russian Military is widely reported to have focused on prioritising attrition of enemy forces in Eastern Ukraine over seizing territory or other objectives since around October.

The Defence Ministry report follows a claim by the head of the Russian Wagner Group paramilitary force Yevgeny Prigozhin that very large numbers of Polish military contractors were reinforcing the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine, with some American estimates placing the number of Poles alone operating in the country in the tens of thousands. It also follows growing expectations that the Russian Air Force will play a growing role in providing supporting fire on the frontlines, as both Ukrainian and U.S. official sources have widely warned that the Ukrainian air defence network’s ability to maintain air denial is fast declining. 

Ukraine’s arsenals of S-300 and BuK missile systems that form the backbone of this network have continued to be rapidly depleted. Reports of massive casualties on the frontlines are in line with information since January referring to the situation for Ukrainian forces in Eastern Ukraine as a ‘meat grinder’, with a life expectancy for personnel there at times falling to just four hours in key hotspots such as Bakhmut. 

Ukrainian officials have themselves referred to extreme losses, highlighting that these are being concealed until the war ends, while the Polish Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Rajmund Andrzejczak recently warning that Russia appeared to be in a much stronger position to sustain the war effort that its adversaries.