"The Russian invaders lost 1,710 people the other day. In addition, Ukrainian soldiers neutralized 24 tanks, 64 armored fighting vehicles, 24 artillery systems, an air defense vehicle, 46 operational-tactical UAVs, 47 vehicles and three units of special equipment of the occupants" , informed the Ukrainian General Staff in the report on the operational situation for October 20.
Russian troops have only recorded such a high level of human losses on May 12, 2024, on the second day of the offensive in the direction of Kharkiv, when they attacked massively in an attempt to surprise the Ukrainian defenses. Then they lost 1,740 soldiers, 31 tanks, 42 armored infantry fighting vehicles and 19 artillery systems, including 4 MLRS.
The current intensification of combat actions by Russian forces can be seen to have started on October 14-15 when their human losses suddenly increased by over 20%. The average of the last six days of fighting reached almost 1,500 soldiers killed and wounded in a day.
The reason why the Russian military leadership accelerated the pace of combat is, most likely, the predicted worsening of weather conditions in the immediate period following the rains, which will affect the use of armored vehicles, especially tanks.
However, the Russian forces did not increase the intensity of the fighting on the entire front. The last week was characterized by an almost uninterrupted period of assaults on the adjacent Pokrovsk and Kurahove directions (especially on Kurahove), located west of the city of Donetsk. On Sunday, only in the direction of Pokrovsk, 490 Russian soldiers were killed and wounded, the proportions being usually equal.
If the situation was the same in the Kurahove area, then two thirds of the Russian losses on Sunday were in the two directions. This would mean that on the rest of the front Russian troops harassed the Ukrainian defense more, trying to pin it down so as not to make maneuvers in support of the two seriously threatened directions.
In the last week, on a front of 100-120 km (out of a total of 1,200 km), which is the sum of the Pokrovsk and Kurahove directions, more than half of all the battles took place, which means that the Russians have a very important objective and urgently in that area.
The Russian military leadership probably believes that it will succeed in destabilizing the Ukrainian defenses south of the Sloviansk – Kramatorsk – Drujkivka – Konstantianivka urban agglomeration in order to later open a new direction of attack towards the respective cities from the south.
The Russian forces also intensified their attacks in the last decade of September, but not at the same level as today, with their losses reaching almost 1,400 soldiers per day (dead and wounded). Then, unlike last week, they relied more on armored vehicles, probably due to the drier terrain.
A peculiarity of the last decade of September was that the Russian forces intensified the fighting in the direction of Kursk, while now the level is lower there, the priority being the Pokrovsk - Kurahove area.
