Russia's Vladimir Putin Allegedly Lost 50% Of Airborne Forces During First Six Months Of Ukraine War
Feb. 2 2023, Published 5:15 p.m. ET
While Russia has not released any official numbers, an expert is claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s airborne forces have lost more than half of its fleet and staff, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The Kremlin has not released any numbers regarding losses suffered since the invasion of Ukraine began nearly 12 months ago.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has released figures claiming that more than 120k troops have been killed, with an alleged additional 400k suffering injuries so bad they can no longer fight, the Daily Star reported.
While the Kremlin is not releasing any figures, Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former military press official, spoke with Russian state TV and said the air division of Putin’s army has suffered huge losses.
Zvinchuk said many people are saying “you can’t see the airborne troops on the frontline.”
He added, “Unfortunately, this is the objective reality – by the start of mobilization, our airborne forces lost 40-50% of staff.”
On top of that, Zvinchuk said, “As of now, out of the old and tested formations with designated equipment, not that many are remaining.”
Reports earlier this week stated Putin was struggling to fill the empty slots in his army, as he had around 900,000 men at his disposal, but he has reportedly already used 57% of those men.
Putin is scrambling to replace these huge losses, as a new intelligence analysis said, “The Russian leadership highly likely continues to search for ways to meet the high number of personnel required to resource any future major offensive in Ukraine while minimizing domestic dissent.”
New reports also state that Russian border guards were preventing dual passport-holding Kyrgyz migrant workers from leaving Russia, telling them that their names were on mobilization lists, Daily Star reported.
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Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov recently stated that the decree on “partial mobilization” will remain in force, stating the decree remained necessary for supporting the work of the Armed Forces.
While observers have questioned why this measure has not been formally rescinded, it looks like Russian authorities are likely keeping this option open for another round of call-ups under the “partial mobilization.”