The fighting during January 2017 summary reportWar went on through January, at medium intensity and has escalated with major attacks , up to 3 battalions involved in Avdeyevka and Yasinovataya. When the intensity of the fighting reaches the 2,000 "incidents" a day, commentators say the level of bombardment is similar to the battles of early 2015 for Donetsk Airport and Debaltsevo. No major breakthrough attempt, but intense positional warfare.
If you follow this thread, I have long maintained that the ceasefire violations are as reported by the DONi news agency are not single shots, but shellings of a variable amount, as the original Russian text states its "times" not "shots", and in general the intensity of the fighting and casualties are minimized in order to freeze the conflict.
The available evidence about Ukrainian casualties admitted to hospitals, reports and video about the damage to infrastructure and houses, and intensity of the fighting confirms this.
On Sunday,29 January, there was the first official recognition that every day hundreds if not thousands of artillery rounds are exchanged, and countless firing by other arms.
https://dninews.com/article/12-hours-extreme-ukrainian-military-provocations-donbass-sunday-whoah
relevant excerpt:
Loud booms from heavy artillery have been shaking the capital all day. Thousands of artillery shells and mortar grenades have exploded in such intense firing, that in some moments we could not hear single explosions, but just the fire storm from the outskirts of the city. Available videos with audio of the cannonade, confirm, that even if whole salvos are not fired, the gunfire is constant, one shell every few seconds, going on for several hours means thousands of shells and bombs being fired.
And there was nothing extraordinary about Sunday 29, there have been days with even more intense fighting at the end of November and beginning of December of 2016
In the graphic below, note the report refers to the previous day, so the figure for sunday 29 is 1,912 shellings and combats
And approximate estimate that has proven remarkably consistent is dividing the number of "cease fire violations" by 10 to get an idea of the Ukrainian casualties, since the Ukrainian side is always the attacker and its infantry exposes itself when going out of the positions into the attack, and the assumption that the Novorussian return fire is similar in volumen.
So daily casualties would range from two dozen in a "quiet" day with 200 violations, wich amounts to sporadic shelling, shooting and sniping, and is certainly not a ceasefire, to two hundred daily casualties in intense days with 2,000 strikes and combats recorded.
So yesterday would have cost the Ukrainians about 200 casualties, and this is confirmed by reports that talk about 70 dead, and double or triple that amount in wounded. Again, nothing unusual or out of the ordinary, and similar casualties to the battlalion sized attacks on Debaltsevo sector at the end of December.
Ukrainian regime seems to have belatedly realize the need to censor the data posted by Ukrainian volunteer organizations about number of wounded being admitted to hospitals in the rearguard, so that source has dried up. Most unusually, the Novorussians have reported today on Ukrainian losses and confirmed the 70 dead figure.
https://dninews.com/article/donetsk-defense-situation-report-31012017
relevant excerpt:
The DPR Armed Forces' reconnaissance obtained a report of the AFU Chief of Staff V. Muzhenko on real losses among the Ukrainian military on January 29 and 30, which had been presented to the 'president' of Ukraine, and which became the reason of the P. Poroshenko's emergency return from Germany. According to the obtained materials, at the moment in morgues and military medical institutions of Ukraine there is the following situation:
- In Selidovo's morgue – 29 bodies of dead Ukrainian military personnel;
- In Krasnoarmeysk's morgue – 41 bodies of dead military personnel;
- In the 65th mobile military-medical hospital in Chasov Yar – 62 wounded fighters;
- In the 66th mobile military-medical hospital in Novy Trud – eight dead bodies and 14 crippled military personnel.
True losses are being concealed from the public in order to prevent panic in the AFU ranks and among the population. We will publish this information for the 'president' of Ukraine P. Poroshenko to have an opportunity to offer explanations personally, looking in the eyes of the dead and crippled soldiers' mothers, for the sake of what ambitions he had ruined so many people. And what did he win by having launched into eternity more than 70 fighters? For justification of such huge losses Poltorak stated the alleged capture of some "10-meters plot", but actually – they have failed the situation.
So yes, that's 200 casualties as predicted, and the coincidence repeats so often, that is a valid method.
And that is just one sector of the front. The fighting in Donetsk city and surroundings gets the most reporting because that's where reporters are, but these days see also intense fighting in the south of the front and in Lugansk sector.
Adding up all the daily reports, there were 24,000 artillery strikes and firefights over January, an average of 800 a day. One third of the "violations" were done with artillery, mortars and other heavy weapons, wich confirms the scarcity of artillery ammunition, as the average proportion was 55% throughout 2016. This means less artillery fire, more mortar bombs, and more infantry attacks.
Casualties can reasonably be estimated around 2,000 for this month. Losing a few battallions a month is acceptable to the junta but this added on top of the previous year casualties will force a new recruiting drive at some point, or pushing the National Guard and other paramilitary battalions into the frontline, these number 40,000 from recent reports and it would be interesting to know their proportion of frontline troops, estimated now at 50,000.