Comments by "Richard Marsden" (@richardmarsden5610) on "Rishi Sunak travels to Poland for cooperation talks with NATO members | Ukraine war" video.
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Footage released on April 21 has confirmed that Russian ground units have captured a Leopard 2A6 tank during clashes with Ukrainian forces. The footage showed the vehicle appearing to be under evacuation from a combat area in a rural area and relatively undamaged, although missing tracks from both sides. Russian units reportedly had to blow off the Leopard’s tracks with explosives to get it moving, with the German-supplied vehicle expected to be placed on display after study by the Russian Armed Forces. The Leopard 2A6 is by far the most capable variant of the Leopard 2 provided to Ukraine, and among European tank classes is surpassed in its capabilities only by a very small number of Leopard 2A7s that have entered service from the end of the 2010s. The vehicles form a small minority of the Leopard 2 tanks the Ukrainian Army has received, with other Western donors such as Poland and Spain supplying much older and less survivable Leopard 2A4s. Both Leopard 2 types have proven highly vulnerable in combat.
In early January it was revealed by German sources that only a fraction of Ukraine’s Leopard 2A6 tanks remained available for service, with the class’ performance in Ukraine both in combat and in terms of availability rates and repairability expected to have a lasting impact on its reputation. Leopard tanks have notably been captured on multiple occasions in the past, with footage released in December 2023 showing Russian soldiers capturing several pieces of Western supplied heavy equipment including a Leopard 2A4. While reports of combat operations by Leopard 2s have made fewer headlines in 2024, with Western expectations for the class’ performance already having been disappointed, U.S.-supplied M1 Abrams tanks were first seen in combat in Ukraine in the final week of February and in the subsequent days quickly took heavy losses. With the American vehicles beginning to see combat almost ten months after the first Leopard 2s did, the class managed to avoid reputational damage during the summer 2023 offensives but, much like the Leopard 2A6, then took serious losses in the first days after seeing actual combat.
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On April 23, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation launched the meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The Army General Sergey Shoigu made a speech summering the interim results of the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine. The Russian Defense Minister revealed Ukrainian losses and confirmed the recent Russian victories.
In total, since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in February 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost almost 500 thousand servicemen, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry declared. The Army General Shoigu did not clarify if the number includes only irretrievable losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, or it includes both killed and wounded servicemen.
Shoigu: “The American authorities cynically declare that Ukrainians will die for their interests in the fight against Russia. In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine amounted to almost half a million soldiers. The Kiev regime failed to achieve its goals in a counteroffensive prepared by NATO instructors. Our servicemen have dispelled the myth of the superiority of Western weapons.”
Last time Shoigu called the losses of Ukrainian troops in February, 2024. Then, they exceeded 444,000 servicemen. Since the beginning of the year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been losing more than 800 military and 120 units of various weapons, including foreign ones, every day, the general said. Then, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced that Ukraine had lost 31 thousand soldiers.
Both sides are suffering losses in bloody battles but both Russian and Ukrainian sources and military officials confirm that Kiev’s losses are several times higher than those of the Russian side. While the cemeteries are growing throughout the country, the Kiev is trying its best to find the fresh cannon fodder, both in Ukraine and abroad. However, no poorly trained Ukrainian men thrown to the battlefield can help to stop the Russian advance.
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