Russian casualties are soaring on the frontlines of Ukraine and could top 40,000 dead and wounded this month, according to Janek Kesselmann, the deputy commander of the Estonian Military Intelligence Centre.
“Russia’s losses are quite high. And this month seems to be one of the biggest in terms of losses for Russia,” he told Estonian outlet EER.
The enormous losses suffered in Dontetsk in eastern Ukraine meant that the Russians were using new tactics to attack and take settlements, he said.
Kesselmann continued: “Therefore, they besiege settlements with indirect fire. After the settlement is surrounded, they simply destroy it. It is a very cynical and disgusting thing.”
According to Estonian intelligence, there was no significant change in the frontline in Russia’s Kursk Region.
In August, Ukraine launched a massive incursion into the neighbouring Russian Kursk region, taking and holding significant territory. This has forced Vladimir Putin’s generals to divert some resources from other fronts to push Kyiv’s forces back.
Now, Ukrainian military intelligence claims that North Korea has joined the war by sending nearly 12,000 troops to Russia. The US Pentagon assessed that around 3,000 troops had been deployed to Russia.
Kyiv has claimed these North Korean soldiers are deployed to the Kursk region inside internationally recognised Russia.