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<p>By Mark Trevelyan</p>
<p><span class="caps">LONDON</span> -Russia’s defence ministry took the uncommon step on Monday of denying allegations that a naval infantry unit had suffered disastrous losses of males and tools in a futile offensive in japanese Ukraine.</p>
<p>The ministry was responding to what Russian army bloggers mentioned was an open letter from members of the one hundred and fifty fifth marine brigade of Russia’s Pacific Fleet, complaining they'd been thrown into an “incomprehensible” assault on Ukrainian forces southwest of Donetsk.</p>
<p>“On account of the ‘rigorously’ deliberate offensive by the ‘nice generals’, we misplaced about 300 individuals killed, wounded and lacking in the midst of 4 days. (And) half of our tools,” mentioned the letter.</p>
<p>The textual content was printed by Gray Zone, a preferred army weblog. It was addressed to Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of the far japanese Primorye area, 1000's of miles from Ukraine, the place the unit relies.</p>
<p>Kozhemyako appeared to acknowledge the letter was real however mentioned it exaggerated the size of the true losses.</p>
<p>“We contacted the commanders. Sure there are losses, there’s heavy preventing, however they're removed from what's written on this attraction,” he mentioned in a video assertion on his Telegram channel. </p>
<p>The defence ministry assertion, quoted by state-owned <span class="caps">RIA</span> information company, rejected the assertion that the marines unit had suffered “excessive, pointless losses in individuals and tools”. </p>
<p>Quite the opposite, in the midst of 10 days it had superior 5 km (over 3 miles) into Ukrainian defensive positions, <span class="caps">RIA</span> quoted the ministry as saying. The assertion particularly denied that the brigade’s commanders had proven incompetence.</p>
<p>“Because of the competent actions of the unit commanders, the losses of marines for the given interval don't exceed 1% of fight energy, and seven% wounded, a big a part of whom have already returned to responsibility,” it mentioned.</p>
<p>The weird denial steered the reported losses had touched a uncooked nerve at some extent within the warfare’s ninth month when Russian forces are below heavy stress in partly occupied areas of Ukraine that Moscow has proclaimed as its personal territory – actions denounced as unlawful by Kyiv, the West and most international locations of the United Nations.</p>
<p>Russian army bloggers, a few of whom command audiences of half one million or extra on social media, have change into more and more essential of the failings of Moscow’s generals since Ukraine recaptured massive components of the northeast of the nation in September.</p>
<p>The reported attraction from the marine unit criticised particular person commanders by title, describing them as mediocrities who handled their males like “meat” and had been solely serious about furthering their very own careers.</p>
<p>The regional governor, Kozhemyako, mentioned he had despatched supplies to the army prosecutor’s workplace for additional examination.</p>
<p>“In situations of knowledge warfare, any publications on social networks want checking. I'm positive that in any case the scenario can be analysed and the competent authorities will give their evaluation,” he mentioned.</p>
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