Aleksandr Khodakovsky, military commander of the Donetsk People's Republic, writes on Telegram about erroneous mines and artillery fire on his own troops.
"After the Mariupol operation, we calculated that we suffered the biggest losses from our own fire. Someone even mentioned the figure sixty percent. This is a common phenomenon, but how common of course depends on the competence of the commanders, especially the gunners. "
Big problems
The Institute for the Study of War think tank commented in a report that while the figure in the post would be exaggerated, the fact that a commander is publicly writing this shows that the Russian force is in big trouble.
"Wet shelling occurs in war, but never close to 60 percent.
This shows a lack of communication and coordination between the Russian forces," they write in their report.
Well-known concept
Våda shelling, so-called "friendly fire" in English, is a well-known concept in the military.
It means accidentally shelling one's own.
- Completely escaping a war without threat control is difficult, confirms Rein Pella, teacher of defense systems and artillery expert at the Norwegian Defense Academy.
He believes that upwards of 60 percent of the Russian losses in connection with the capture of Mariupol are due to dangerous shelling could actually be true.
- When you fight in built-up areas, you talk about short distances.
Sometimes you can be in the same house, that the enemy is on the other side of the wall.
This makes it much more difficult to keep track of where one's own forces are.
Other factors on the Russian side are poor accuracy and old ammunition.
- Russia has had to rely more and more on old ammunition.
They have not been able to afford or have the opportunity to buy new ammunition, states Rein Pella.