War in Ukraine / April 16

The Molfar team sends a daily newsletter about the war in Ukraine. The editorial staff of AIN.Capital publishes the full version of the digest. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.

20,000 russian militants killed

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that more than 20,000 russian militants had been killed in the 50 days of the war. Now there are three times as many wounded russian militants, another 60,000, and a thousand taken prisoner of war.

If the figures are true, in less than two months the russian army has lost half of its military force, which was gained on the border with Ukraine in February.

Estimates of the losses of the Russian army differ. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 1,351 soldiers were lost during the war, and another 3,825 were wounded. According to NATO commanders, the losses of Russia – from 7 to 15 thousand killed, about 25 thousand – wounded. The total number of soldiers who can no longer take part in the fighting – from 30 to 40 thousand people. Ukraine points out that it destroys about 500 russian troops every day. In addition, according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Armed Forces has already destroyed 7 generals.

In any case, Russia’s losses are catastrophic. For comparison, we can take the last two major wars in which Moscow participated. 

1. In the Afghan war, the losses amounted to 15 thousand soldiers, about 50 thousand – wounded. These are figures for 10 years of war. 
2. In the two Chechen wars – the loss of about 11 thousand and almost 36 thousand wounded. 

According to unofficial information, the losses are twice as high. The Chechen wars lasted seven years. The war in Ukraine has lasted less than two months.

According to European and American experts, the russian army has indeed suffered huge casualties. This is one of the reasons why the troops withdrew from the northern regions of Ukraine – Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy. Surviving units will be reorganized to be sent east. In addition, mobilization is not going well in russia, and it is not possible to attract mercenaries from Syria on the required scale. Russia’s Defense Ministry is even looking for those who want to serve through job sites, where they offer from $ 600 to $ 3,000 a month for military service.

In mid-April, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi updated information on the losses of the Ukrainian army – about 3,000 people died and 10,000 were wounded. The russian federation claims that the losses on the Ukrainian side are at least three times greater.

Airstrike, missile and MRL damage

Dnipro region:

• Two missile strikes, as a result, two buildings of a poultry farm with a total area of 8k m² were completely destroyed. Next to it there was an ammonia tank.

Kyiv region:

• Shelling of the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv. One person died and several others were hospitalized in critical condition. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the attack was made on the production buildings of the Kyiv Armored Plant.
• […]

Mykolaiv region:

• As a result of the shelling, residential buildings were destroyed, and the storage facilities of the granary on an area of 1k m² also caught fire. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, “the rocket-artillery depot near Mykolaiv was destroyed”.
• […]

Luhansk region:

• Shelling of the Lysychansk Oil Refinery, a fire started on the territory of 5k m², the remains of oil sludge caught fire. Also, residential areas, a market and a hospital were shelled, vans with bread burned down, and the evacuation was disrupted. A total of 10 objects were damaged.
• […]

Kharkiv region:

• During the day, Russian troops shelled residential areas of the city 23 times and banned cluster munitions were used. Residential buildings, an office building, shops, a service station, a motor transport enterprise, and cars were damaged and destroyed, fires broke out. At ~11:45, Caliber rockets hit the Konnyi market. 31 more people were injured, incl. 4 children.
• […]

Donetsk region:

• 13 settlements of the region were shelled, ~17 civilian objects were damaged: residential buildings, a mine, office buildings. In Nove, a civilian was killed as a result of the shelling; in Bakhmut, a resident of the Luhansk region, that had been injured earlier, died. One more person was wounded in Avdiivka.
• […]

Zaporizhzhya region:

• Russian troops shelled the territory of the community for 5 hours, incl. using banned phosphorus munitions. Residential buildings and social facilities were destroyed. 1 person was injured.
• […]

Sumy region:

• A local resident, walking his dog in the forest, was blown up by a trip wire.
• […]

Lviv region:

• Air strike with cruise missiles from the Su-35 aircraft. The missiles were shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces.
• […]

New laws

Ukraine:

• [Support for the economy] President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Government will continue to operate the electricity tariff in the amount of UAH 1.44 per kWh for Ukrainian households consuming less than 250 kWh per month.
• [National security] The Verkhovna Rada has registered a draft law establishing criminal liability for the subordination of subdivisions of international companies to offices from Moscow. This will be considered a crime against the foundations of Ukraine’s national security.
• […]

Russia:

• [Response to the sanctions] Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that prohibits the placement of depositary receipts for securities of Russian companies on foreign exchanges and obliges to delist existing ones.
• [Censorship] The President of the Russian Federation signed a law introducing fines of up to 5,000 rubles or arrest for up to 15 days, as well as fines of up to 100,000 rubles for legal entities for publicly identifying the USSR with Nazi Germany or denying the decisive role of the Soviet people in its defeat
• […]

This was the free part of the military brief

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In a paid version:

• Airstrike, missile and MLRS damage
• Civilian casualties
• Video of russian prisoners
• New laws
• Occupant’s casualties (est. from Ukrainian General Staff)
• War crimes in a de-ocupied territories
• Alternative loss estimates
• Data archive.
• Analytical charts: occupant losses, chart with known air raid alerts by region and known damage, diagram of known airstrike, missile and MRL damage and known child deaths, diagram of known damage for Ukrainian infrastructure, diagram of average duration of the air alerts in the regions.

War in Ukraine. Weekly digest of the key events