The destruction of a Russian battalion as it tried to cross a river in northeast Ukraine last week is one of the deadliest fighting of the war, with estimates based on publicly available evidence suggesting more than 400 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded.. And as the details of this event become clearer and clearer, the scale of the human losses of the occupier seems to break through the information bubble tightly controlled by the Kremlin, writes The New York Times..

Perhaps most impressively, the failure of the Russian battle resonates with pro-Russian bloggers – some of whom are military – who credibly post claims on the Telegram social network about “Russian successes at the front.”.

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Russia sent 550 fighters to cross the Donets River to encircle Ukrainian troops.

Recall, on May 11, the Russian command sent about 550 servicemen of the 74th motorized rifle brigade of the 41st combined arms army to force the Donets River near Belogorovka in the east of the Luhansk region to encircle Ukrainian troops near Rubizhne.

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Satellite imagery shows that Ukrainian artillery destroyed several pontoon bridges and ravaged the dense concentration of Russian troops and equipment around the river.

The Institute for the Study of War, citing an analysis based on publicly available photographs, indicated that Russian losses could be up to 485 killed or wounded, and more than 80 pieces of equipment were also destroyed..

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As news of the casualties at the Belogorovka crossing began to spread, some Russian bloggers seem to have been unable to resist criticizing what they see as incompetent leadership..

“I was silent for a long time,” Yuri Podolyaka, a military blogger with 2.1 million followers on Telegram, said in a video posted on Friday, noting that he has so far avoided criticizing the Russian military.. “The last straw that overwhelmed my patience was the events around Belogorovka, where, by stupidity — I emphasize, by the stupidity of the Russian command — they burned at least one battalion tactical group, possibly two”.

Podolyaka ridiculed the Kremlin's position that the war is going "

A second blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, reported that Russia's offensive in the east is moving slowly, not only because of the lack of reconnaissance drones, but also because of "

Western military analysts have also studied footage of the crossing and claim the Russians' attempt at one of the battles in Ukraine showed a "

The Kremlin's massive campaign to suppress bad news from the Ukrainian front.

They suggested that the Russian commanders, desperate to make progress, had accelerated the operation.. Some also noted that the situation was a reflection of the disorder in the Russian ranks..

If the reckoning that hundreds of soldiers were killed or wounded proves accurate, this will be one of the deadliest battles of this war..

In April, more than 500 sailors were on board the Russian Black Sea flagship Moskva when it was hit by a Ukrainian missile.. The Kremlin initially insisted that all the sailors were rescued, subsequently claimed that one was killed. But while the families of the missing sailors have publicly demanded answers, Russian authorities have largely remained silent on the fate of the crew, part of a massive crackdown on bad news..