Russia’s military is conducting “human wave” assaults along the front lines near the village of Krynky as the war in Ukraine rages on, according to Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command.
Speaking on national television Wednesday, Humeniuk said that Moscow is pushing their troops to the front lines without the use of armored vehicles. Krynky, a small village in the Kherson region on the left bank of the Dnipro River, is roughly 25 miles northeast of the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed last week that the village was “completely” under control by Moscow. Ukrainian officials, however, dismissed the claim as “a manipulation and falsification of facts,” and Humeniuk said Wednesday that Russia made an unsuccessful attempt to storm Krynky on that day.
ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images
The spokesperson added that Kyiv’s soldiers are “ready to fight for the positions and currently work on an extension of a bridgehead.”
Newsweek reached out to Russia’s Defense Ministry via email for comment on Humeniuk’s report.
The war in Ukraine has resulted in heavy losses for both sides, although Russia has reportedly taken a big hit to its number of personnel and equipment. Kyiv and Western intelligence estimate that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops have suffered from 300,000 to 400,000 casualties since the war broke out in February 2022. Moscow’s months-long offensive for the town of Avdiivka, which fell to Russia earlier this month, reportedly costed Putin 17,000 soldiers alone.
There has been some reports of Russian troops refusing to follow orders in light of Moscow’s reportedly staggering losses. One soldier said in a video shared to social media in June that he was refusing to fight in the “meat grinder” that was occurring along the front lines.
Former CIA director and retired U.S. Army General David Petraeus told Newsweek during the Munich Security Conference earlier this month that he doesn’t understand how Putin “can deal with” his number of human causalities.
“I don’t know how Putin can abide this except that he is just such a cold-blooded, brutal autocrat, who has obviously no concern whatsoever for the wellbeing of his people, and certainly for the soldiers on the frontlines,” Petraeus said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Kyiv has lost 31,000 soldiers since fighting broke out over two years ago. While it’s impossible to know an exact number, Western leaders have estimated Ukraine’s losses to be much higher. U.S. officials told The New York Times in August that around 70,000 Ukrainian solders had been killed in the war at that point, and up to 120,000 had been wounded.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.