Russia lost 480 troops on Tuesday alone, according to the latest estimates from Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Indicative estimates of how Russia is faring in its war against Ukraine are regularly shared with the Ukrainian publication, the Kyiv Independent.
There have already been around 68,900 troops lost from Russia’s Armed Forces through the course of the war, according to Ukraine. Equipment has been seriously damaged too, with 2,628 tanks and 4,076 vehicles and fuel tanks lost over the last seven months.
And it doesn’t look like the bloodshed will stop anytime soon.
Ukraine warns ‘heaviest battle’ is on its way
Despite these overwhelming losses and the success of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces are believed to be preparing for the “heaviest of battles” in Kherson, a southern Ukrainian region.
Adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Oleksiy Arestovych, said there were no signs the Russian soldiers would leave the occupied city, even though they were being pushed back by their opponents.
Kherson has been under Russian control since the first few days of the invasion, but as Russian-installed authorities evacuate residents to the east bank, it doesn’t look like the soldiers are following suit.
Arestovych said on Tuesday: “With Kherson everything is clear. The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there.
“It means that nobody is preparing to withdraw. On the contrary, the heaviest of battles is going to take place for Kherson.”
Russia’s ‘dirty bomb’ claims cause concern
On top of that, Russia has claimed Kyiv plans to detonate a “dirty bomb”. However, Ukraine believes this was a ploy to distract from Moscow’s activity at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia. This site is in Ukraine but currently occupied by Russia.
A dirty bomb is full of conventional explosives combined with radioactive substances. No successful attack using a dirty bomb has ever been recorded.
Still, Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia wrote to the UN saying: “We urge the western countries to exert their influence on the regime in Kiev to abandon its dangerous plans threatening international peace and security.”
France, the UK and the US all believe this allegation is “transparently false”.
Energy worries still hang over Ukraine
Meanwhile, the danger in Ukraine remains.
Russia has been subjected the entire country to intense missile strikes in recent weeks, particularly targeting Ukraine’s energy sources and infrastructure.
Refugees have even been urged not return this winter because of the constraint on supplies.
Deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said: “I wanted to ask (them) not to return. We need to survive the winter.”
She said that the situation is only going to worsen, and the grid “won’t survive” if thousands of refugees return.
Anti-war protesters ramp up in Russia
Things are not smooth-sailing in Russia either, as anti-war groups take action and destroy bridges with Belarus.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the Russian military is reliant on rail transport for sending forces to Ukraine in an “extremely challenging” system.
It has to be protected against physical threats across a network of more than 33,000km across many isolated regions.
The anti-war group ‘Stop the Wagons’ took responsibility for the incident – believed by the MoD to be the sixth incident of sabotage against the Russian railways infrastructure since June.
“The Russian leadership will be increasingly concerned that even a small group of citizens has been sufficiently opposed to the conflict to resort to physical sabotage,” the UK intelligence said.