The situation at the front
The propaganda project WarGonzo writes that the Russian military is trying to attack from three sides in the Bakhmut direction . The offensive is coming from the side of Kurdyumovka, to the south – from the side of Experienced, the military is also trying to break through on the eastern outskirts of the city. Near Soledar they attack in the area of Bakhmutsky and Yakovlevka.
Propagandists claim that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are withdrawing troops from Soledar to Slavyansk. The retreat is allegedly associated with "catastrophic losses along the Seversk-Soledar-Bakhmut line."
However, Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the reserve Roman Svitan, with whom The Insider spoke, claims that the Z-military correspondents are passing off a regrouping as a retreat.
“Soledar and Bakhmut are the hottest point of the entire 1000-kilometer front. Moreover, there is a combined hodgepodge – both the Wagner PMC and the Luhansk Cossack regiments inflict a certain combat defeat on the Ukrainian troops. The Russians are trying to get around Bakhmut from the south, from the side of Kurdyumovka and Soledar, but it does not work. In the Kurdyumovka area, they ran into a defensive line in the south, in the Soledar area – in the north, they cannot move further. But they are trying. Local battles are going on there – very tough.
The Russian military will regroup depending on our shelling, the Armed Forces of Ukraine – depending on the shelling of the Russians. That is, they move to new positions or occupy old ones, there is an active defense mode, this is normal. If there is a very powerful artillery attack, you cannot stay in one place. It's defense in motion."
As for the Kherson direction , the day before, Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the Office of the Ukrainian President, said that Russia had landed troops on the Big Potemkin Island – it controls the mouth of the Dnieper and is located right next to Kherson. According to Roman Svitan, the Russian military is now "like cockroaches in a jar."
“This is a good target for our artillery. Our battery has been brought up there, and we are starting to smash the Russians on this island. They have nowhere to go, they just came under fire. It is still possible to move in Soledar, there are large areas, but on this island it is impossible. If they expected to keep us in the counter-battery and get us, then they do not succeed. This is the whole war – some try, others counterattack. So they fell into such a trap, and now we do not allow them to approach or leave from there. We do not allow ships to approach. This is such a trap, they themselves fell into it.
In the Donetsk direction , as the Russian "military correspondents" write, the assault on Maryinka and the attack north of Horlivka continue.
Confirmed losses of Russia exceeded 10 thousand people
The Russian service of the BBC and Mediazona, according to open sources, have confirmed the death of more than 10,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine. As of December 9, 430 of them were mobilized, which is 104 more than two weeks ago. The list of the dead, which publications have been keeping since the beginning of the war, may contain 40-60% fewer names of the dead than actually buried in the country.
Most of the losses were in the Krasnodar Territory (428 deaths), 40% of the deaths from the region were not reported in the media. Journalists got the figure by examining the burials in local cemeteries. This is followed by Dagestan – 363 people, then Buryatia – 356. It is known about 54 dead from Moscow.
About 15%, that is, at least 1,509 people, are officers. Journalists were able to confirm the death of four generals and 49 colonels. Such losses can be explained, among other things, by the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine successfully use Western precision weapons.
The elite units of the Russian army are suffering significant losses, the article says. At least nine military pilots have died in the last two weeks alone. In addition, since the beginning of December, four members of the GRU special forces have already died in the war, and since the beginning of the war, more than 250 people, every fourth of them an officer.
As for the mobilized, 394 people died at the front, another 36 died in Russia before reaching the combat zone. The causes of these deaths were most often heart problems and drunkenness.
According to the most conservative estimate, the journalists write, the real death toll may exceed 20 thousand, the total irretrievable losses (those who died, were wounded and could not return to service, went missing) – at least 90 thousand.
In early November, such an assessment was given by the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley. According to him, more than 100,000 Russian soldiers were wounded or killed, while the Ukrainians suffered commensurate losses.
Russia hides its losses. During the war, the Ministry of Defense reported on the dead only three times. The last time was in September, when mobilization was announced. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu then said that 5,937 Russian soldiers had died.
Important Stories, citing sources, wrote that the Kremlin expects a loss of 100,000 killed and wounded only among the mobilized by spring and plans to replace them with conscripts.
Mutual shelling
Russian media reported about the shelling of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the center of Donetsk, allegedly from Gradov. Arrivals were in the area of the government house.
In addition, the WarGonzo project spoke about a missile attack on Tokmak in the Zaporozhye direction, where a Russian military airfield is located.
Pro-Russian channels claim that Ukraine is preparing to hit Russian infrastructure again with upgraded Tu-141 Strizh drones. To do this, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are allegedly restoring abandoned small civil aviation airfields along the line of contact and the state border.
"New Russian city" in the Kherson region
The "head" of the occupation administration of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said that Putin would build a "new city" on the Arabat Spit (northeast of Crimea). It is allegedly going to make a "government quarter" in it. In peacetime, boarding houses and coastal cafes worked there.
Rogozin under fire
Dmitry Rogozin, who is now sitting in the trenches of Donbass in American camouflage , claims that he came under fire from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, his car was bombed. But he still survived and says that he managed to "work on the enemy."
Putin still has "no problems with the special operation"
While the hardest battles are going on in the Bakhmut direction, and the Russian army is "bogged down" in the Ukrainian defense and suffers huge losses, President Vladimir Putin continues to assure that "NOR is going on as usual." “Everything is stable with us, there are no questions there and there are no problems today,” he said at a press conference following his visit to Bishkek.
According to the correspondent of the Financial Times newspaper, the Russian army is trying to storm Bakhmut, as in the First World War. The attacks are continuous, the soldiers just walk over the bodies of the dead. "It's a conveyor. For what? Fucking meter of our land. For Putin, [the Russian military] is just meat. And Bakhmut is a meat grinder,” a Ukrainian soldier told reporters.
See also The Insider military summary for December 8: Attack on Sevastopol, Wagner against Mozart, Konashenkov destroyed more HIMARS than Ukraine received. What's going on at the front.