A film just released cites Ukrainian intelligence describing the significant destruction of Russian equipment on a vital highway in the Donetsk oblast this year.
Bakhmut: The Road of Life, from the documentary series SSU: Special Operations of Victory, shows Ukraine’s armed forces’ campaign on highway T0504. This was a vital connection from the southwestern edge of the city that has been the center of fierce fighting for months.
Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), referred to the roles played by snipers from Ukraine’s Special Operations Centre and FPV (first person view) drones in battles around Donetsk in spring 2023. The SSU Special Forces were among the first to use the drones for combat operations, having previously improved and adapted them for specific missions.
Maliuk described how fighters used drones to destroy 79 pieces of Russian equipment in four combat missions during the battles for the road in the spring of 2023. Newsweek has been unable as yet to verify this figure. “A drone that costs between $450 and $2,000 burns up a multi-million-dollar tank,” Maliuk said, according to Ukrainska Pravda. “That’s very clear arithmetic that proves the effectiveness of drones.”
The film marks the anniversary of the deaths of snipers Dmytro Kaplunov, Denys Volochaiev and Oleksandr Vdovychenko, as well as honoring the memory of all SSU and defense forces members killed in the war.
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It comes as Ukraine’s defense intelligence GUR said that Ukrainian partisans had destroyed a Russian station used to refuel military equipment in the city of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia oblast Friday. The explosion damaged military equipment and killed several Russian military personnel who were taking a cigarette break.
“The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and brave Ukrainian partisans remind us that smoking kills,” the GUR said in a statement on its Telegram channel, according to a translation.
Russian military forces have occupied Melitopol since March 2022 and have been the frequent target of attacks by Ukrainian resistance groups.
The exiled mayor Ivan Fedorov said last month that Ukrainian resistance forces had blown up a car that was carrying Chechen fighters near the city. The GUR also said on November 12 that at least three Russian officers were killed during an explosion at one of Russia’s military headquarters in the city.
It comes as Russian independent media outlet Mediazona and BBC Russia said there had been a spike in Moscow’s casualties, due to the campaign for Avdiivka in Donetsk oblast and fighting in Kherson Oblast. The news outlets said the deaths of 38,261 Russian soldiers can be verified by public sources, while adding that the real number is likely to be much higher.
Ukraine’s armed forces said on Saturday that Russia has lost 331,110 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, which includes 1,070 casualties over the past day.
Newsweek could not independently verify the battlefield figures. Estimates of casualty figures vary, with Kyiv’s totals usually exceeding those of Western countries.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.