TrueValueMetrics ... Impact Accounting for the 21st Century

Date: 2025-10-14 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00029135

UKRAINE WAR BRAINS BEATING BRAWN The Military Show: Russian Troops are DROPPING Like FLIES at Pokrovsk… 20 Killed per Meter! PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_oJ--3UEus
Russian Troops are DROPPING Like FLIES at Pokrovsk… 20 Killed per Meter! The Military Show Sep 29, 2025 1.86M subscribers #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis Russia’s push toward Pokrovsk has turned into a disaster. With staggering losses, destroyed armor, and relentless Ukrainian drone defenses, Moscow’s troops are being cut down in brutal numbers for minimal gains. What was meant to be a decisive summer campaign has instead become a grinding stalemate that is draining Russia’s strength and exposing the limits of its strategy on the battlefield. Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: / @themilitaryshow #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/zCvBSxMe How this content was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Learn more Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 Vladimir Putin’s summer offensive against Pokrovsk is going from bad to worse. It was already terrible enough for Russia’s President that his forces failed to achieve his goal of taking Pokrovsk (poh-KROV-sk) by the end of August. But now, those forces are caught in death traps. They’re losing what little territory they managed to gain, and they’re being repelled every time they try to take any settlement that could bring them closer to Pokrovsk. Putin has created yet another meat grinder. And Russia’s soldiers are paying the price. Those troops are dropping like flies at Pokrovsk, with 20 dying for every meter of territory they manage to capture. That’s according to Euromaidan Press, which made the bold claim on September 27 in an article covering Russia’s faltering attempts to take the settlement of Myrnohrad (meer-noh-HRAD). It reported that Russia was losing about 20 troops per meter of territory gained. One meter amounts to a little under 3.3 feet, which is only just over half the average height of the soldiers attempting to claim the territory. A Russian soldier could lie down and advance further… assuming they weren’t torn 1:01 to shreds by Ukraine’s drones while trying. More on that in a moment. Euromaidan Press says that the situation has gotten so desperate that surviving Russian soldiers are now taking to social media to warn away potential new recruits. This is “not our war,” the soldiers are apparently claiming as they tell Russia’s young men to ignore recruitment ads that call for “real men” to fight in Ukraine. “Don’t fall for the psychological tricks,” these soldiers seem to be saying. “If you join the Russian military, Putin will send you to your death.” And why does this massive casualty rate exist? Simple – Putin is telling his soldiers around Pokrovsk to push on even though he knows that he’s ordering them to march to their deaths. Nowhere is this clearer than in Myrnohrad. For weeks, Euromaidan Press says, Russia’s forces have been trying to claw their way into the city for the simple reason that occupying that city may offer a new angle of assault against Pokrovsk. Putin wants Pokrovsk. Taking that city was his main goal during the summer, and it’s a city that he’s been trying to claim for almost as long as the Ukraine war has lasted. There’s a good reason for that. Pokrovsk has gained a certain amount of symbolism as being a vital Ukrainian 2:01 fortress city in the Donetsk (don-YETSK) region. Plus, it’s a logistical hub for that region, meaning Putin believes that taking Pokrovsk sets the stage for taking Donetsk and, from there, the Donbas (Don-Bass). But back to Myrnohrad. Russia had hoped that it would be able to use its armor to achieve a breakthrough in the city weeks ago. Ukraine would be too distracted defending Dobropillia (doh-broh-PILL-ya), Russia reasoned, leaving Myrnohrad open to assault. However, the strategy hasn’t worked. Not only has the Dobropillia advance failed, but every armored push toward Myrnohrad has been met with overwhelming Ukrainian firepower that results in the 20 casualties per meter figure that Euromaidan Press reports. Russia’s soldiers aren’t even reaching the contact line most of the time. They’re being mowed down long before they get there. Geolocated footage shows the wreckage of Russian vehicles time and time again, Euromaidan Press says. Those shattered vehicles are now a symbol of Russia’s failure in Pokrovsk. But more importantly, losing so many means that Russia is now resorting to pure infantry assaults against Myrnohrad, which is where Russia’s problems truly begin. Russian troops on foot are no match for Ukraine’s 3:01 drones. And with Myrnohrad being a city with many high-rise buildings, so much so that Russian glide bomb attacks often target these buildings, Ukraine has plenty of structures from which it can unleash its drones. That’s the difference-maker. Ukraine is able to create entire drone walls, Euromaidan Press reports. Russia’s soldiers, operating on foot because all of their armor has been destroyed, now have to try to run through this drone wall undetected. It doesn’t work. The drones are finding the Russian troops and shooting them down. These drone walls have been a problem for Russia ever since Ukraine decided to invest heavily in domestic drone production. Right now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is capable of manufacturing eight million drones annually. It may actually be able to reach that figure in 2026, too, following the September 12 confirmation that Europe will invest $7 billion into Ukraine’s drone industry. But even without that money, Ukraine makes millions of drones per year that it’s using to create a layered defense against Russia’s soldiers. The Atlantic Council discussed this strategy back in July. “The Ukrainian military’s innovative and rapidly evolving use of unmanned aerial vehicles to create a layered defense is often referred to as a 'drone wall.' 4:04 If this Ukrainian drone wall can prove itself over the coming months and blunt Putin’s big offensive, this will likely shape future defensive doctrine in military academies across Europe and beyond,” the outlet said. Ukraine’s drone walls certainly proved themselves in the months that followed. Russia’s summer offensive was blunted to the point where it achieved none of the objectives Putin set for the summer season. And now, Russia’s troops are trying to battle their way through these layers upon layers of drones. Those soldiers don’t have armor. They don’t have support. They simply have orders to push forward even as they know that an overwhelming number of Ukraine’s drones stand in their path. The outcome is inevitable. And it’s why 20 Russian soldiers are dying or being injured for every meter that they gain. Drones alone are enough of a problem for Russia’s forces near Myrnohrad. However, Ukraine has other tricks up its sleeve. Massive airstrikes in which Ukraine uses JDAM guided bombs delivered by MiG-29 fighter jets have also been tearing Russia’s forces apart. Euromaidan Press highlights two such attacks, noting that one case saw Ukraine use JDAMs to take 5:03 out a mine building that was filled with Russian soldiers preparing for an assault. Those soldiers were obliterated in seconds, the outlet claims, marking yet another instance of Ukraine taking out Russian troops long before they ever reached the contact lines around Pokrovsk. The second strike, Euromaidan Press says, resulted in Ukraine’s bomb failing to detonate. But that was okay. Ukraine sent drones to follow up and took out a Russian stronghold in the process. It’s this combination of creativity and synergy between the various weapons it uses that allows Ukraine to inflict such heavy casualties on Russia. Ukraine has devised a complex strategy combining drones, airstrikes, and ground operations to strike specific targets, the loss of which impacts Russia on the field. With each strike comes the loss of armor. The loss of personnel. Sometimes, even the loss of commanders. Russia has to resort to sending its troops on foot because it has no other options, and that’s why Russia has its 20 soldiers per meter casualty rate. Many of Russia’s soldiers now find themselves in a hopeless situation near Myrnohrad. “As a result, 6:00 the few Russians who manage to infiltrate forward often find themselves trapped and doomed. With drones flying overhead there is no place to hide, and one geolocated video shows operators leading Ukrainian marines from the sky to Russian infiltrators hiding in an underground shelter,” Euromaidan Press reports. There’s that synergy again. It’s combined arms at its best, and Ukraine has revealed itself to be a master of this particular art of warfare. By the way, if you want a more detailed examination of how Ukraine is successfully trapping Russia’s soldiers in “kill zones” in the Pokrovsk direction, you’ll want to learn more about what’s happening in Dobropillia. The offensive that was supposed to distract Ukraine’s forces in Myrnohrad ended up being yet another example of how Ukraine is trapping Russia’s soldiers in “cauldrons,” leaving them with nowhere left to run. Check out our video to see why Russia is losing so many of its soldiers in its failed offensives against Pokrovsk. Coming back to Myrnohrad, Russia intended to take the city so it could be turned into a launching pad for a renewed offensive against Pokrovsk. It would be an intelligent move if Russia were able to pull it off. Russia has plenty of drone operators, too. They could do their work from Myrnohrad’s high-rise buildings, 7:02 just as Ukraine’s drone operators are doing right now. But Russia hasn’t taken Myrnohrad. And with the rate of attrition being 20 soldiers for every meter gained, it’s not going to. That pace is impossible for Russia to sustain, Euromaidan Press claims. Eventually, Ukraine will bleed out the Russian forces. Pokrovsk, which is Putin’s ultimate objective in the Donetsk region, will remain standing as a result. This is a region to which Putin dedicated around 100,000 troops, Ukrinform said on August 30 when reporting on Russia’s failure to take Pokrovsk during the summer. The spokesperson for Ukraine’s Dnipro (D'NEE-proh) Operational and Strategic Group of Forces, Viktor Trehubov (VIK-ter treh-HOO-bov), puts the sheer scale of Russia’s failures into perspective when speaking on Ukrainian television, Ukrinform says. “Russia once amassed 190,000 troops for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. There is currently a 100,000-strong force concentrated in the Pokrovsk sector alone,” Trehubov pointed out. “Before the war, Pokrovsk had a population of around 60,000, if I recall correctly. The summer campaign continues and is nearing its end. Despite extremely aggressive actions and some tactical advances, 8:02 Russia has not achieved a quick victory. Pokrovsk remains unconquered.” Russia dedicated a force over half the size of the one it thought could take all of Ukraine to Pokrovsk. And it still failed. Myrnohrad is just a microcosm of something that has been happening all over Pokrovsk. While Russia’s rate of advance isn’t always as slow as one meter for every 20 soldiers it loses, what few gains it has made in Pokrovsk have come at a similarly heavy price. Russia reportedly lost 124 soldiers for every square kilometer that it managed to gain during the summer. It also has a casualty count of 210,000 soldiers since the start of 2025, Kharkiv’s (KHAR-keev) Gwara Media reported in September. This simply isn’t sustainable. And Russia knows it. On September 19, Russia’s Bloknot Network founder, Oleg Pakholkov (OH-leg pa-HOL-kof), traveled to the Zaporizhzhia (Zah-poh-REE-zhee-ah) front to speak to the commander of the BARS-Sarmat Special Operations Center, Dmitry Rogozin (DMI-tree Roh-GO-zin). Like Pokrovsk, Zaporizhzhia is a city that Russia has been trying to take since Putin launched his invasion, only to run into the same obstacles of Ukraine’s drone walls and combined arms assaults that prevent Russia from 9:01 making any real progress. Rogozin was surprisingly candid about the many reasons why Russia loses so many soldiers at the cost of advancing. Though he sprinkled his answers to Pakholkov’s questions with insults against Ukraine, Rogozin admitted on several occasions that Ukraine is the tactically superior of the two sides. After bemoaning how Russia is supposedly fighting alone while Ukraine is being supported by high-tech countries, Rogozin admitted that the Russian advance was coming at an enormous cost. The Kyiv Post covered portions of the interview, noting that Rogozin highlighted how the fighting on the front lines has turned into a positional war in which Russia’s equipment “is destroyed before it even reaches the front,” and where Russia’s small infantry assault groups try to push forward with little or no success. This is in Zaporizhzhia. But if you think back to everything that we just told you about Myrnohrad, you’ll see a lot of echoes of Ukraine’s strategy in these short comments. Rogozin went into a lot more detail about Ukraine’s use of drones, noting that Russia’s biggest problem right now is that it simply can’t compete with Ukraine on sheer numbers. “Ten times more than we do,” Rogozin answered when asked what Ukraine’s 10:00 drone advantage really looks like. “They have no problems with components or with their overall drone supply. We know the number of long-range drones – from 100 to 250 daily. And their number will increase. Imagine the enormous production.” While Rogozin is highlighting the difference with long-range drone production here, it’s on the battlefield where Ukraine’s better drone numbers really pay off. Russia is trying to catch up. In June, The Moscow Times reported that Putin has called on Russia’s drone manufacturers to increase production from the 1.5 million they made in 2024 to a number Putin regards as “sufficient.” In June, this amounted to Russia producing 1.6 times more drones monthly than it had in 2024, which amounts to a total of 2.4 million for the year. That’s a long way behind Ukraine’s potential eight million, with much of the disparity being seen in the short-range drones Ukraine is using to build the multi-layered drone walls we discussed earlier. Ultimately, it’s all quite simple. Ukraine is combating Russia’s manpower advantage with thousands upon thousands of drones that now do the jobs Ukraine’s soldiers used to do. That’s why Russia finds itself losing 20 soldiers for every meter it gains in places like Myrnohrad. 11:01 Russia is bringing people to a drone fight. There seems to be a natural response to these problems for Russia: Take out Ukraine’s drone factories. But that isn’t really possible either, as Rogozin explains. “Some of their components are imported, but the majority are manufactured in Ukraine—in areas as far away from the front line as possible—in the Ternopil (Terr-NOH-pil) and Lviv (Le-VEEV) regions. These are likely underground factories, where the proper level of secrecy is maintained, ensured by Western advisers—British and American.” This goes back to Rogozin’s complaint that Ukraine is getting help from high-tech partners, but it’s the claim that Ukraine’s drone operators work in underground factories that is Russia’s real problem. Russia has missiles that can reach the outskirts of Ukraine. It also has bunker busters, such as the Kh-59MKM, which is fitted with a penetrator warhead that could potentially take out a Ukrainian drone factory. But the thing about these types of factories is that they’re very hard to find. That’s the whole point of being underground. And if Rogozin’s complaints are to be believed, Ukraine is able to lean on its Western partners to keep the locations of these factories concealed while simultaneously learning enough about Russia to conduct its own strikes. Rogozin claims that 12:03 Russia is trying to disrupt Ukraine’s production cycle. But most of the country’s underground factories have built up enough stockpiles that even a loss of supply for two months will do little to affect them. Again, this all comes back to places like Myrnohrad and the drone walls we’ve already discussed. Russia just can’t do enough to stop Ukraine’s drone production, which means the 20-to-one situation its troops are now in isn’t going to get any better. The drones aren’t going away. Ukraine is only going to get more of them. The strange thing here is that Russia isn’t adapting to these Ukrainian tactics, and Rogozin knows it. “The map is moving with great difficulty, at a colossal price paid by our troops for the advance,” Rogozin says. “We are currently advancing using traditional methods, in three-man assault groups. It's trench warfare, with equipment being burned before reaching the front line on both sides.” The point Rogozin is making here is that Russia’s attritional tactics aren’t working when faced with Ukraine’s drone hordes. In fact, the opposite of what Russia intends is happening. In an attritional war, a country like Russia would expect to burn through a lot of soldiers. However, Russia would also 13:00 expect to be gaining a lot more territory than it is. United24 Media highlighted this in a June piece examining Russia’s traditional attritional approach, noting that Ukraine’s use of drones and technology is ably countering Putin’s reliance on sheer numbers. Ukraine has improvised and adapted, the outlet says. After the failure of Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive, which saw the country relying on traditional tactics, Ukraine engaged in a wholesale change that resulted in the reliance on drones that we see today. Russia, though it incorporates drones into its strategy, tends to rely on drones as long-range assault vehicles that accompany its missile strikes against Ukraine’s cities. On the ground, though, Russia is still relying on what it’s always relied on – armor and troops. It's running out of the former, which is why so many of the latter are now dying for minimal gains. What all of this amounts to is that the battlefield has become somewhat static. That’s especially the case in Pokrovsk, where some of the gains Russia made are being reversed, but the combat lines, in the main, are pretty much unchanged. Again, we come back to the 20 soldiers per meter figure. That sort of pace doesn’t create an advance. It 14:02 creates a stalemate, and one that seems to be serving Ukraine very well. At least, that’s how it appears. There is one person who believes that the stalemate Ukraine has managed to create might not serve Ukraine in the end. That person is Valeriy Zaluzhny (Vah-LEH-ree Zah-LOOZH-nee), who is the Ukrainian Army’s former Commander-in-Chief and now the country’s ambassador to the U.K. The Kyiv Post says that Rogozin sees the static nature of the battlefield as being a detriment to Russia, as highlighted by his country’s high casualty rate. Zaluzhny, on the other hand, cautions that a static battlefield could also be a major issue for Ukraine. Writing for Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (DZEHR-kah-loh TIZH-nyah) in September, Zaluzhny compared Ukraine’s situation to what was seen during World War I. For a long time, he says, defenders had the advantage in that war because they could use mines, artillery, barbed wire, and any number of other defenses to create a stalemate, much like the one seen in Ukraine. But eventually, he points out, attackers figured out how to break these defensive lines because the defenders failed to push on. The Ukraine war’s stalemate differs in nature, of course. High-speed tanks made the difference in World War I. We already know how Russia’s tanks fare against Ukraine’s drone hordes. “The problem 15:02 of positional warfare has revealed another pattern,” Zaluzhny says. “The transition to positional warfare leads to its prolongation and carries great risks for both the Armed Forces and the state as a whole. In addition, it benefits the enemy, who makes every effort to restore and increase its military power.” Perhaps he has a point. A stalemate could give Russia more time to rebuild stockpiles and come up with new strategies. However, Russia is trying to do all of that while losing soldiers at a rate that is as unsustainable as Zaluzhny claims Ukraine’s defense will end up being on his country’s resources. It may all come down to which side breaks first, just as Putin intended. But Russia’s leader may end up discovering that it’s his side that breaks, especially if the best his forces can muster is one meter of progress for every 20 soldiers lost. Something is also coming that could slow down Russia’s already crawling advance even more – winter. So long the season that has benefited Russia when other nations have attacked it in the past, “General Winter” is betraying Russia. Ukraine has turned the tables, and you can find out how by watching our video. And if you enjoyed this video, be sure to subscribe to The Military Show for more coverage of Russia’s failing attempts to gain ground in Ukraine.

SITE COUNT