Only 50% of the battalion tactical groups that she had at the beginning of the war remained in Russia.

Retired US Army Brigadier General Kevin Ryan, Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School, said this in an interview with TSN, Ukrinform reports..

Of the approximately 160 battalion tactical groups that Russia had at the beginning of the war, 120-130 entered the war. Of these 120-130, at last count, after the units began to withdraw from Kyiv, the Russians had approximately 70-80 battalion tactical groups. These are significant losses.. As a result, Russia has only 50% of the battalion tactical groups that it had at the beginning," In his opinion, this is a huge loss..

" Consequently, the clock is ticking against President Putin's army. They lose troops and units. And it looks like they can't create new troops and units,"

Kevin Ryan also analyzed whether, in his opinion, it is now possible to deblock Mariupol and liberate Kherson. According to him, the fighting in Mariupol and Kherson is important from the point of view of the goal of the Russian military to cut off Ukraine from the Black Sea.. The defense in Mariupol is amazing. It's amazing that the Ukrainian military is still holding out there.. I don't know how much longer this can go on. They are almost completely surrounded. However, we must remember from history that there are examples of small groups holding out for many weeks and months,"

Ryan also noted that Kherson is also extremely important.

In his opinion, Kherson and Nikolaev are two gateways blocking the further advance of Russian troops to Odessa.. The fact that they are still not under the full control of the Russian military is also a great merit of the Ukrainian fighters, and this blocks the implementation of Putin's strategic goal in the southern part of Ukraine,"

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As reported, during the fighting near Nikolaev, the formations of Russian invaders lost more than 70% of their personnel..