The US estimates that Russia has lost 15 to 20% of its military power in Ukraine

Photo: RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP / Getty Images

The number of tactical units in the Russian border town of Belg orod, at 100 kilometers north of Kharkov, would have increased from 30 a 40, a senior Defense Department official reported on Friday.

This implies that to the east of the country they have moved 15,000 more Russian soldiers in recent days, according to ABC News. “We believe that area will serve as a resupply area for Russian troops. We have seen indications that some units are moving towards Belgorod,” he said.

The defense official maintained that Russia is concentrating its energy and effort in the south and in the east of the country. “It’s hard to say exactly where each of these (soldiers) are, but we’ve seen them increase.”

As the troops Russian forces withdraw from some Ukrainian cities, some of the Russian Battalion Tactical Groups (or BTG, with approximately 800 to 1000 soldiers each) who have retreated across the borders of Belarus and Russia have been essentially “eradicated” from the fighting in Ukraine. according to the senior defense official.

“There is simply nothing left of the BTG except a handful of troops and maybe a small number of vehicles,” the official said.

In terms of total losses, counting troops, tanks, planes, and missile inventory, Russia has lost between the 15 and the 20 % of combat power it originally had against Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, according to the official.

On the other hand, he assured that the “struggle” during the last eight years in the Donbas region has served for both Armies to “be familiar” with the terrain, the of population and lines of communication, so he expects “a knife fight”. “This could be very bloody and very ugly”.

The Donbas is becoming the main theater of battle in the country after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failed attempt to take the Ukrainian capital of kyiv.

“The Russians and the Ukrainians have focused on Donbas for eight years, and for eight years the Ukrainians have been able to block Russia’s biggest targets in Donbas,” the Pentagon official said. “But the fight has been bloody, it has been hard. And it’s been pretty consistent for years.”

The Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, assured last week that there were reports predicting that tens of thousands of reservists were being mobilized to reinforce Russian units on the Donbas border after the losses of its troops in the north of Ukraine.

In addition, the Ukrainian Armed Forces assured this Tuesday that Russia “would be regrouping troops” and “concentrating its efforts” in the preparations for a military offensive in the east of the country, referring to the Donbas region, where the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk are located.