Russia's army could COLLAPSE amid huge losses of more than 30,000 troops

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Russia's army could COLLAPSE amid huge losses of more than 30,000 troops - which Putin believes is a 'price worth paying' for victory in Ukraine, confidential UK report says

• The report is a secretive analysis of Putin's brutal on-going invasion of Ukraine
• It suggests Moscow's huge troop losses could lead to the collapse of its armies
• Despite losing more than 30,000 troops, report says Putin sees these losses as acceptable in order to achieve a 'victory' in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region
• Meanwhile, Russian forces continued efforts to capture city of Sievierodonetsk
• City is the last pocket of Ukrainian government control in Luhansk province

By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 06:20 AEST, 31 May 2022 | UPDATED: 06:40 AEST, 31 May 2022

Russia's army could collapse amid huge losses of more than 30,000 troops in Ukraine, according to a confidential UK report that emerged on Monday.

While Moscow's latest estimated troop losses make grim reading for President Vladimir Putin, the report claims he sees them as a 'price worth paying' for victory.

However, the new report - a secretive analysis of Putin's brutal invasion seen by The Mirror - claims that the losses could be too great for his soldiers, amid other reports that Russian morale is low.

Latest estimates from the Ukraine's Armed Forces suggest as many as 30,350 Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion was launched on February 24, which came after more than 100,000 of the Kremlin's troops massed on the border.

In addition, several thousand Russian military vehicles - including tanks, aircraft and mobile artillery units - have been destroyed in Putin's so-called 'special military operation' that has dragged into its fourth month.

In the latest example of heavy Russian losses, it was reported on Monday that a Ukrainian paratrooper regiment destroyed a Russian regiment.

Former Ukrainian journalist and editor, and a Ukraine Army veteran, Viktor Kovalenko claimed: 'The Ukrainian 80th Paratrooper-Storm Brigade confirm‎s that they annihilated a unit of the Russian 104 Paratrooper-Storm Regiment (76th Division).'

He said around 20 Ukrainian servicemen were killed and their armour destroyed in the attack. The location of the assault was not reported.

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Smoke rises in the city of Severodonetsk during heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops at eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on May 30, 2022, on the 96th day of the Russian invasion. A new report has claimed Russia's army could collapse under heavy losses

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An eldery woman walks away from a burning house garage after shelling in the city of Lysytsansk at the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on May 30, 2022

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The new report - a secretive analysis of Putin's brutal invasion seen by The Mirror - claims that the losses could be too great for his soldiers, amid other reports that Russian morale is low. Pictured: Putin is seen in Moscow on Friday

According to The Mirror, the new report suggests Kremlin officials have tried and failed to persuade Putin that his invasion has been a disaster, and that he believes he can still achieve a partial victory in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.

A victory in the region would give Russia leverage over Kyiv, the report says, while defeat would likely result in Putin being ousted as president.

Meanwhile, Russian troops pushed farther into a key eastern Ukrainian city and fought street by street with Kyiv's forces Monday in a battle the mayor said has left the city 'completely ruined' and driven tens of thousands from their homes.

On Monday, military analysts painted the battle as part of a race against time for the Kremlin, which they said wants to complete its capture of the industrial Donbas region before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine's defences.

According to The Mirror, the confidential report says: 'Russia's attempt to achieve a speedy and decisive victory in the Donbas has not yet succeeded. They are still grinding forward, gaining 1-2km a day.

'The Russians are now achieving what successes they have mostly by means of a slogging match with repeated, very costly, infantry attacks reminiscent of 1945 not 2022.'

It goes on to say that so far, Putin has been able to mostly hide the 'gross failures' of the invasion from the Russian public, or blame them on other Kremlin officials.

'The Russian population until recently bought Putin's disinformation. We have seen an attempt within the Kremlin to get a message across to Putin and his closest team that things are going wrong, perhaps even catastrophically wrong,' it adds.

On the report, British Russia commentator Bruce Jones told The Mirror that there will eventually come a point where Putin's forces can no longer sustain any more losses.

'This would be a straw that broke the camel's moment, where units would no longer be able to function as a fighting force because they are so depleted,' he said.

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Ukrainian tanks move in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022

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A local resident points towards a residential building heavily damaged in a Russian bombing in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022

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A Ukrainian Territorial Defence Force member shows his weapon in Kharkiv area, eastern Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022

In recent days, the fighting has focused on Sievierodonetsk in a battle Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called 'indescribably difficult.'

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces reinforced their positions on the northeastern and southeastern outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, 90 miles south of the Russian border in an area that is the last pocket of Ukrainian government control in Luhansk province.

Relentless Russian artillery barrages on the city have destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90 percent of the buildings, and power and communications have been largely cut to a city that was once home to 100,000 people.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Russians were also pushing toward nearby Lysychansk. He said two civilians were killed and another five were wounded in the latest Russian shelling.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk sit on either side of the strategically important Siverskiy Donetsk River - and the Russian advance on the cities is part of an all-out push - executed without regard for personnel and equipment losses, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.

'There is an impression that Russia has set the goal to seize Donbas at any cost,' said Zhdanov.

'The Kremlin has reckoned that it can't afford to waste time and should use the last chance to extend the separatist-controlled territory because the arrival of Western weapons in Ukraine could make it impossible.'

But in a potential setback for Ukraine, President Joe Biden appeared to dismiss reports that the U.S. was considering sending long-range rocket systems to the country.

On Monday, Biden told reporters that there are no plans for the U.S. to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine, amid reports that the move is being considered.

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A child looks up at a building destroyed during attacks in Irpin outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022

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A girl sits on a swing outside destroyed buildings during attacks in Irpin outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022

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Pictured: Russia's estimated army losses against Ukraine, according to Ukraine's Armed Forces

Weapons from the West have already helped Kyiv's forces thwart a Russian advance on the capital in the early weeks of the war.

That failure forced Moscow to withdraw, regroup, and pursue a more limited objective of seizing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already held swaths of territory and have been fighting Ukrainian troops for eight years.

The Ukrainians hope they can hold the Russians off long enough for them to run out of steam - or for more Western weapons to arrive.

Ukrainian officials have warned of the dire cost if more help does not arrive soon.

'The number of victims is rising every hour, but we are unable to count the dead and the wounded amid the street fighting,' Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press in a phone interview, adding that Moscow's troops advanced a few more blocks toward the city center.

'The city has been completely ruined,' he added, and only about 12,000 to 13,000 residents remain, sheltering in basements and bunkers to escape the Russian bombardment - a situation that recalls the siege of Mariupol that trapped residents and led to some of the worst suffering of the war.

While tens of thousands are believed to have died in Mariupol, Striuk estimated that 1,500 civilians have died in his city since the war began, from Russian attacks as well as from the dire conditions, including a lack of medicine or medical treatment.

A 32-year-old French journalist, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, died Monday near Sievierodonetsk when he was hit by shrapnel from shelling while covering Ukrainians evacuating the area, according to his employer, French broadcaster BFM TV.

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Ukrainian servicemen walk past a building heavily damaged in a Russian bombing in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, May 28, 2022

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Igor Zakharevich (L), the militant-appointed mayor of Debaltseve, arranges the flags of Russia and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic at the city administration building of Svitlodarsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, 26 May 2022

This satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on May 27 shows Russian armor unit and aftermath of artillery bombardments in Popasna, Ukraine, May 25, 2022

Mykola Sunhurovskyi, a military expert at the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center think tank, said weapons are taking a long time to arrive - given the Russians an opening to take advantage of the slow delivery and make up for difficulties its forces had earlier in the war.

'Russia clearly has been trying to take revenge for its past failures in Ukraine and achieve at least some of its goals,' Sunhurovskyi said.

Russian pressure also continued in the south on Monday. Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said an artillery strike on a shipyard in the southern port of Mykolaiv destroyed Ukrainian armoured vehicles parked there.

In the Kherson region, the Russia-installed deputy head of the regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, told Russia's Tass state news agency that grain from last year's harvest is being delivered to Russian buyers, adding that 'obviously there is a lot of grain here.'

Ukraine has accused Russia of looting grain from territories its forces hold, and the U.S. has alleged Moscow is jeopardizing global food supplies by preventing Ukraine from exporting its harvest.

Beyond long sieges of cities, Russia's troops have also been accused of carrying out targeted killings and other atrocities in areas they briefly held around Kyiv early in the war.

On Monday, prosecutors submitted the first rape case of the war to a court - the last step before a trial begins. A 31-year-old Russian soldier is accused of killing a man and raping his wife in Bohdanivka, a village northeast of Kyiv, officials said. The soldier's whereabouts aren't known and he will be tried in absentia, prosecutors said.

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Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia´s Security Council, said that was a 'reasonable' decision. He said that 'otherwise, if our cities come under attack, the Russian armed forces would fulfill their threat and strike the centers where such criminal decisions are made.'

Medvedev added that 'some of them aren't in Kyiv.'

Russian pressure also continued in the south on Monday. Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said an artillery strike on a shipyard in the southern port of Mykolaiv destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles parked there.

In the Kherson region, the Russia-installed deputy head of the regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, told Russia´s Tass state news agency that grain from last year´s harvest is being delivered to Russian buyers, adding that 'obviously there is a lot of grain here.'

Ukraine has accused Russia of looting grain from territories its forces hold, and the U.S. has alleged Moscow is jeopardizing global food supplies by preventing Ukraine from exporting its harvest.

Russia, meanwhile, has pressed the West to lift sanctions against it as it seeks to shift the blame for the growing food crisis - which has led to skyrocketing prices in Africa.

Zelensky urged France not to succumb to such 'blackmail' as the Ukrainian president met Monday with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seen on a screen, left, as addresses from Kyiv during an extraordinary meeting of EU leaders to discuss Ukraine, energy and food security at the Europa building in Brussels, Monday, May 30, 202

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Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, speaks to media prior the extraordinary meeting of EU leaders to discuss Ukraine, energy and food security at the Europa building in Brussels, Monday, May 30, 2022

Meanwhile, European Union leaders struggled on Monday to agree to impose an oil embargo on Russia, as Ukraine's president urged them to set aside their differences and endorse a long-delayed package of sanctions aimed at piling more economic pressure on Moscow to halt the war.

The EU has already imposed five rounds of sanctions on Russia over its war.

It's targeted more than 1,000 people, including Putin and top government officials, as well as pro-Kremlin oligarchs, banks, the coal sector and more.

But a sixth package of measures, announced on May 4, has been held up by concerns over oil supplies. The EU gets about 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil from Russia, and the divisions are embarrassing the 27-nation trading bloc and exposing the limits of its ambitions.

Addressing the EU leaders Monday by video-link in a 10-minute message, Zelensky urged them to end 'internal arguments that only prompt Russia to put more and more pressure on the whole of Europe.'

He said the sanctions package must 'be agreed on, it needs to be effective, including (on) oil,' so that Moscow 'feels the price for what it is doing against Ukraine' and the rest of Europe.

Only then, Zelensky said, will Russia be forced to 'start seeking peace.'

Read more:

• Russia's army could collapse amid massive losses, confidential UK report says - World News - Mirror Online

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