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Apply with £100,000 annual income or £100,000 savings or investments with HSBC UK or Premier status abroad. Hello and welcome to the Battleground Ukraine podcast with me, Patrick Bishop and Saul David.

Well, the big news this week, according to the US National Security Council,

is that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties since the turn of the year, and that its offensive

in the Donbass, chiefly in and around, Bakhmut, has failed. We'll discuss the ramifications

of this for the much-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive, which might begin any day now.

We'll also look at the renewal of Russia's large-scale missile attacks, presumably in an

attempt to disrupt the aforementioned counter-offensive, and the various peace initiatives that have

been touted by, among others, China and the Vatican. Okay, well, let's start off with this news about

the casualties. It comes from John Kirby, who's the spokesman for the US National Security

Council. Now, they're saying that the estimate of 100,000 casualties, that includes 20,000 dead,

remember, this is just for this year, this is not for the conflict dating back to last February,

was based on recently declassified intelligence. He added that nearly half the

Russian dead were from the Wagner Group and that the majority of them, all casualties, had died

in the battle for Bakhmut. He added Russia's attempt, this is quoting, at an offensive in

the Dombrass largely through Bakhm, has failed. Russia has been unable to

seize any real strategically significant territory, and instead it has only made incremental

gains. So what, Saul, do you think this tells us about the upcoming Ukrainian counter-offensive?

Well, the Ukrainians are going to be pretty pleased with this, aren't they? And it's obviously

...