Russia Floods Front Lines With ‘Low-Quality Forces’: ISW

Russia is flooding the front lines of the Ukraine war with “low-quality forces,” according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

ISW said in a report published on Tuesday night that “Russian forces continued a slightly intensified tempo of ground attacks near” the Luhansk city of Kreminna earlier in the day. Russia reportedly conducted multiple “unsuccessful offensive operations” among more than 21 attacks west of the city.

The U.S.-based think tank, citing Ukrainian military officials, suggested that the Russian onslaught was facilitated by Moscow “actively using ‘Storm-Z’ assault units composed of former prisoners to conduct highly attritional assaults on Ukrainian positions.”

“The recent commitment of ‘Storm-Z’ units to the Kharkiv-Luhansk Oblast frontline likely explains the increased number of attacks reported near Kreminna over the previous few days, as it appears that Russian forces have committed a relatively large quantity of low-quality forces to frontal infantry assaults,” ISW said.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense via email for comment.

On Monday, ISW reported that “Russian forces made gains in the Kupyansk area and continued ground attacks along the Svatove-Kreminna line,” suggesting that the Russian military was focusing its attention on the eastern front.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in a Telegram post on the same day that it was “quite difficult for our defenders to advance because the enemy threw all their forces to stop” the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive but “the biggest blow is yet to come.”

“Despite the fact that our troops are advancing in several directions of the south, the enemy is concentrating a lot of his efforts in the east and continues to advance there,” Maliar wrote. “So, now it is hot both in the east and in the south.”

Maliar claimed that over 4,600 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive during the preceding week alone, while over 400 units of Russian equipment and weapons were purportedly destroyed.

The Ukrainian military claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces suffered a further 1,010 casualties, bringing the total number of Russian casualties to 221,460 since the invasion began on February 24, 2022.

Russia has also claimed victory over multiple Ukrainian counteroffensives, while asserting that Kyiv’s forces suffered massive casualties. Newsweek cannot independently verify battlefield losses, or the accuracy of either country’s claims.

ISW said that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was addressing the Ukrainian counteroffensive “with a relatively high degree of rhetorical coherence,” maintaining that Russia “learned from its past mishandling of the information space during previous Ukrainian counteroffensives.”

Shoigu reportedly acknowledged “that Ukrainian troops have launched 263 attacks on Russian positions since June 4,” while also denying “that Ukrainian forces have made gains anywhere in the theater, contrary to publicly available geolocated evidence of Ukrainian advances.”