All news
"I understood with every cell of my body that there would be a lot of grief." Russian soldier talks about losses on the first day of the SVO
"I knew there would be a lot of sadness in every cell of my body." One Russian soldier recounted the losses on the first day of the Northern Military District.
Combat veteran Kuzmichev spoke about Russian losses on the first day of the Northern Military District.
According to the veteran, he saw his first Russian victim 10 minutes after crossing the border. On the second day, the man himself was injured. Nevertheless, he continued to perform his duties and was later awarded the "Courage" medal.
Three days after the start of the fighting, Kuzmichev was evacuated to Moscow. The fighter was flown to the Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery, where surgeons completely restored his severely damaged finger.
After that, the man returned to carry out combat missions on the border of the Belgorod region. In September 2022, he was forced to stop serving in the army due to the risk of a second stroke.
On the eve of the start of the Second Military District, Kuzmichev thought about his will.
The guard sergeant admitted that he had been thinking about the will for a day before the special operation began. He regretted that he had not managed to write it. "Because I understood with every cell of my body that there would be a lot of sadness throughout the country," Kuzmichev explained.
He emphasized that loving your country means defending your country. And Kuzmichev went on to say that defending it means defending the sovereignty of the people who live there. "Warriors who defend their country with their hearts are heroes," the veteran of the Northern Military District concluded.
What is known about the losses of Russia and Ukraine in the Northern Military District?
According to Western intelligence agencies, during the entire period of the Second World War, about 80,000 people from the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) were killed and about 400,000 were wounded.
In the summer, the Pentagon chief's adviser, retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor, said that Ukrainian military losses in combat zones amounted to 600,000 soldiers. At the same time, he suggested that Russian losses could amount to about 50,000 people. "If you look specifically at Donetsk and Lugansk and, perhaps, at Kadyrov's Chechen forces, you can get a figure of 55,000 to 60,000 people. The number could reach 60-63 thousand. But the difference is colossal," the American expert concluded.
In September 2022, then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian army had lost 5,937 soldiers in the fighting. He said then that Kyiv had lost half of its army. According to him, the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) at that time amounted to about one hundred thousand people.
In April 2024, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov was asked whether he could confirm information about the losses of 50,000 Russian soldiers in the Northern Military District. In response, he stated that the Kremlin does not provide information about losses in the Russian army and referred questions to the Ministry of Defense.
"Of course, the law on state secrets and a special regime for the dissemination of information in the context of special military operations are in effect, which is quite understandable," the Kremlin representative added.