Russian President Vladimir Putin has put a hard number on the number of his tanks knocked out in the Ukrainian counteroffensive so far, a rare admission of loss but one he countered with claims Ukraine had lost many times more.
Pro-Kremlin journalists and war bloggers had an intimate personal briefing by Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, which stood out for Western observers perhaps less for its discussion of social benefits for Russian servicemen or grain exports and more for what could be a frank admission of military losses. In comments made before cameras and even repeated on Russian state media, Putin said the country had lost 54 tanks in the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Whether this is the ‘propaganda number‘ or the truth is, for now, hard to know. Ukraine claims to have destroyed 3,829 Russian tanks since the start of the war, and 106 since the start of the counteroffensive last week. Ukrainian government figures also claim 140 destroyed non-tank Russian armoured vehicles…
