Meat Grinder: Ukraine Loses 43,000 Soldiers since June 4, 1420 in Last 2 Days; 3 US Vets Dead

US vets Lance Lawrence and Andrew Webber were killed July 29 in Ukraine. (Photo: Task and Purpose)

The killing continues: The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) lost 845 men on Aug. 2 and 575 Aug. 3 during its hara-kiri “counter-offensive” without sufficient air support, the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed. The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed Gateway reports that over 40,000 Ukrainians have died in the “counter-offensive”  since June 4.

On the Donetsk front, the Russians claim to have repelled 8 enemy attacks and counterattacked on Aug. 2, “improving the situation” for the Russian Army.

Three American Army veterans were also killed, including Geoff Johns, killed July 31st near Bakhmut, Visegrad 24 reports. Andrew Webber, who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, and Lance Lawrence, who served in the Marine Corps, were both killed on July 29, Ryan O’Leary tweeted, a U.S. Army veteran who leads foreigners in Ukraine’s 59th Motorized Brigade.

At least 16 Americans have died in Ukraine since the Russian invasion February 2022, Task and Purpose reports: “Many of those Americans served in the U.S. military, including Marine veteran Ian Tortorici; former Green Beret Nicholas Maimer; and Daniel Swift, who served with Navy SEALs before deserting in 2019s.”

“Since the start of the so-called ‘offensive,’ the Ukrainian armed forces lost over 43,000 soldiers in June-July. This number does not include the injured, who were evacuated to hospitals in Ukraine and abroad, foreign mercenaries as well as the soldiers that were neutralized in long-range high-precision strikes in rear areas,” the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed. Gateway had estimated Ukrainian losses at 46.800, based on previous MoD figures.

“Over four thousand nine hundred units of various AFU weapons have been destroyed on the line of contact, including 26 aircraft, 9 helicopters, 1,831 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, including 25 German-manufactured Leopard tanks, 7 French AMX wheeled tanks and 21 U.S.-manufactured Bradley IFVs. In addition, the enemy losses were 747 field artillery pieces and mortars, including 76 U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery systems, as well as 84 self-propelled artillery systems from Poland, the United States, France and Germany”, the Russian ministry claimed.

“We were treated as cannon fodder, without communication, without anything” a captured AFU servicemen said, according to the Russians. “There was no training. Weapons were the simplest, there was no weapons at all.”

There were no figures on Russian casualties. Dutch website Oryx counts 11,533 Russian units destroyed or damaged in the war, including 2,199 tanks. Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) Commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky said that at least 8,500 VDV personnel have been wounded in Ukraine since the start of the war, the Institute for the Study of War reported, calling it “a rare official disclosure of Russian casualties, which Russian officials have largely sought to obscure as the war has progressed.”

In July, Reuters reported that “nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine,” according to independent Russian media outlets Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University.

Russian IT analyst Eldar Murtazin reports that Ukranian mobile providers registered the losses of 1.1 million SIM cards from Spring 2022 to Summer 2023, or 5,500 SIM cards per week. Murtazin believes these may represent total civilian and military casualty figures. He points out that Ukrainians who have emigrated to Europe or elsewhere usually keep their SIM cards for roaming.

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