Security developments on Russia's border with Ukraine and US estimates of Wagner losses in the battles of Bachmut

The border between Russia and Ukraine has witnessed new security developments, and simultaneously Washington revealed estimates of the losses of the Russian military group Wagner in the Ukrainian city of Pakhmut, which has been under continuous Russian attack since last summer.

Alexander Bogomaz, governor of Russia's Bryansk province on the border with Ukraine, said a freight train was derailed on Monday by a bomb planted in its tracks in the Uchinsk region of the province.

Bogomez added that the incident had not resulted in casualties. The Russian agency "Interfax" quoted the emergency authorities in the province that the fire broke out in two trailers loaded with fuel, out of 72 trailers, and that the emergency services prevented the fire from reaching the rest of the trailers.

Russia recently reported thwarting incursions by Ukrainian militants into Bryansk.

In Russia's Leningrad province near St. Petersburg (western Russia), local governor Alexander Drozdenko announced the explosion of a pillar of a power line in the town of Susaninsky, in the northwestern province of the country.

Drozdenko added that an unknown object, resembling an explosive device, was found there, and denied disrupting the power supply to the affected areas, explaining that the network was replaced by the substation.

In Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, local authorities said they foiled a new drone attack on Monday.

Ukrainian soldiers run to shelter from shells near Bachmut (French)

U.S. Estimates

On the other hand, the spokesman for the US National Security Council, John Kirby, announced Monday that US intelligence estimates that the losses of Russian forces in the battles in Ukraine since December amounted to 20,80 dead and <>,<> wounded.

Kirby said at a press conference that US intelligence estimates that half of the Russian dead are from the Russian private group Wagner, noting that the majority of those killed were former prisoners who were thrown into combat in the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk (eastern Ukraine) without adequate training or military command.

The US spokesman considered that "the conclusion is that Russia's attack rebounded on it," as he put it.

On the other hand, the spokesman for the US National Security Council declined to disclose Washington's estimates of casualties on the Ukrainian side, saying that he would not disclose anything that would make it difficult for Ukrainians, as he put it.

According to the latest toll published by the General Command of the Ukrainian General Staff, more than 190,24 Russian soldiers have been killed and injured since the start of the Russian offensive on Ukraine on February 2022, <>.

Moscow says tens of thousands of Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in more than 12 months of war.

Battles of Bakhmut

On the ground, fighting continues in the city of Bachmut amid conflicting statements from both sides of the conflict over the boundaries of control of the city, which is now almost completely destroyed.

While Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday that its forces were continuing their advance in Pakhmut, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Maliar stressed that Russian forces had failed to capture the city even though they had thrown all their resources into that battle.

Maliar said fighting was still ongoing inside Pakhmut, and that Ukrainian forces had been able to retake some positions there after the Russians achieved little success there.

For his part, the commander of the Eastern Group of Ukrainian forces, General Oleksandr Sirsky, said Monday during an inspection visit to the battlefronts in Pakhmut that Ukrainian forces are working to prevent Russian forces from taking control of the city despite their continuous attempts to penetrate Ukrainian positions.

Sersky said his forces had inflicted heavy losses on Russian forces and captured a number of soldiers east of Lehman, Donetsk.

Remnants of Russian shelling on the city of Pavlrad in Dneprofisk (European News Agency)

Civilian casualties

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Vovoodymyr Zelensky announced that two people were killed and 40 wounded in the new wave of Russian missile bombardment on several regions of Ukraine on Monday evening.

Zelensky said in his evening video address that the victims fell in Chernihiv (east) and Paflorad in Dneprovitz reviewed to Hjok (southeast).

The Russian missile attack targeted the capital Kiev and the northern, eastern and central regions of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian military said its defenses shot down early Monday 15 of the 18 Russian missiles launched from strategic bombers from the skies of the Caspian Sea.

In contrast, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its military units bombed Ukrainian military installations on Monday and hit all their targets, and also talked about shelling targeting Ukrainian sites in Donetsk and killing 60 Ukrainian military personnel.

In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian governor of the Kherson province announced the killing of civilians and the injury of others in a Russian bombardment targeting the south of the province, noting that the Russians bombarded the province 160 times during the past hours using heavy artillery, "Grad" rockets and marches, which led to damage to schools, health and administrative facilities.

Pro-Russian authorities in the southeastern province of Zaporizhia said two civilians were killed and 14 wounded in Ukrainian shelling of the Russian-controlled city of Mikhailovka.