Ukrainian President Zelenskyy highlights major losses for Russia in the Kursk area, with intense battles ongoing near Makhnivka and in the Pokrovsk direction.
For anyone who also doesn’t know what a battalion is, Wikipedia says
“A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers.[1] Commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several companies, each typically commanded by a major or a captain. The typical battalion is built from three operational companies, one weapons company and one headquarters company. In some countries, battalions are exclusively infantry, while in others battalions are unit-level organizations.”
Soviet-style battalions are half that size though. They usually get augmented with more hardware and are then used as independent units, in what the Russians call a Battalion Tactical Group.
If they lost a battalion, that’s 500-600 people, if they lost the whole BTG, it’s 700-800.
It’s a good question what “loss” means here. A total disorganized rout is also a total loss, even though some men might be recoverable and still in fighting shape. The hardware is cooked though. And actually, a rout usually means the Ukrainians get to capture it, so there’s your new tank.
And I wouldn’t want to be the guy trying to find where hundreds of North Koreans ended up near Kursk, with them not speaking any language anyone would understand and not knowing the area.
The Kursk front has some of the biggest single hits the Ukrainians have delivered to Russian manpower though. Remember the troop convoys where artillery hits were killing dozens to hundreds of soldiers all at once since the freshly mobilized troops didn’t know where to go and were just sitting densely packed in trucks on the road?
That’s a big point… when you degrade a battalion, you degrade (generally) the line troops. There are support troops, admin, logistics, etc associated that are not generally killed. A truck strike like those vehicles gets everyone.
For anyone who also doesn’t know what a battalion is, Wikipedia says
“A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers.[1] Commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several companies, each typically commanded by a major or a captain. The typical battalion is built from three operational companies, one weapons company and one headquarters company. In some countries, battalions are exclusively infantry, while in others battalions are unit-level organizations.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battalion
Soviet-style battalions are half that size though. They usually get augmented with more hardware and are then used as independent units, in what the Russians call a Battalion Tactical Group.
If they lost a battalion, that’s 500-600 people, if they lost the whole BTG, it’s 700-800.
Losing that many people in 2 days is impressive though. What a meatgrinder.
It’s a good question what “loss” means here. A total disorganized rout is also a total loss, even though some men might be recoverable and still in fighting shape. The hardware is cooked though. And actually, a rout usually means the Ukrainians get to capture it, so there’s your new tank.
And I wouldn’t want to be the guy trying to find where hundreds of North Koreans ended up near Kursk, with them not speaking any language anyone would understand and not knowing the area.
The Kursk front has some of the biggest single hits the Ukrainians have delivered to Russian manpower though. Remember the troop convoys where artillery hits were killing dozens to hundreds of soldiers all at once since the freshly mobilized troops didn’t know where to go and were just sitting densely packed in trucks on the road?
That’s a big point… when you degrade a battalion, you degrade (generally) the line troops. There are support troops, admin, logistics, etc associated that are not generally killed. A truck strike like those vehicles gets everyone.